Helen Metz Lore's Obituary
Helen Metz Lore
March 3, 1922 – June 1, 2017
95 years young
Wife, mother and career woman Helen Lore was a force to be reckoned with. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm were directed into every facet of both her private and professional lives.
She was born Helen Billie Metz on March 3rd, 1922 in Des Moines, Iowa to Helen and William H. Metz. She came to California in 1939 to attend Mills College, earning her B.A. in Economics and Sociology. Vivacious and popular, she was known to her classmates as ‘Metzy’. She also studied fencing and modern dance, this last becoming a lifelong passion.
In 1945 she married respected Oakland union leader Stanton W. Lore, president and manager of Shipwrights, Joiners and Boat Builders Local 1149.
Marriage and motherhood did not prevent her being active in the League of Women Voters, Children’s Hospital (Azalea Branch), the Mills Alumnae Association, the Girl Scouts, the PTA and many other groups devoted to community betterment. Her keen interest in the arts made her an ardent supporter of local performance and museums.
Her professional life officially began in 1960, with five years on the staff of the Montclarion newspaper. In 1965 she entered into her long association with City of Oakland Parks and Recreation, a career that lasted until 1987. During that time she was first Director of Special Programs (Cultural Arts Division), then Director of Montclair Recreation Center, and lastly promoted to District Supervisor. Many will remember fondly the many creative programs she conducted at Montclair Center (1967-1977), as well as her 1969 founding of the still-active Montclair Hiking Club. An avid hiker and lover of the outdoors, she introduced children, teens and adults to the trails and diversity of Bay Area parks.
In 1975 Helen’s husband Stanton passed on.
When she retired from Parks and Recreation she spent the next decade as Administrative Director at Oakland Heritage Alliance, devoted to preservation of our local architectural legacy. She was also active in the Alameda County Historical Society, especially in the restoration of the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, and in supporting other Oakland historic houses.
Helen loved to travel, and as a confirmed Anglophile visited the UK as often as she was able, with hiking tours in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. There were also art tours in France, and a visit to the Czech village where her maternal grandmother was born.
Helen passed away peacefully at Kaiser hospital in Oakland on June 1st, and is survived by her three children, Stanton Lore Jr., Priscilla Metz Lore, and Victoria Anne Lore, as well as by her sister Shirley Cundari and many nieces, nephews and friends. Preceding her in death were her sisters Marilyn Wilson and Dorothy Metz. She will be greatly missed.
Helen left instructions that the family not hold a funeral or public memorial service for her. Part of her ashes will be interred at Mountain View Cemetery in the Lore family gravesite, with the remainder to be scattered in some of the Regional Parks she knew and loved so well.
The family suggests that in lieu of floral tributes, donations might be sent in her name to either the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Oakland Heritage Alliance, or the Alameda County Historical Society.
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