Beatrice Dorothy (Dordi) Round   1920-2015

OBITUARY from The Curry Coastal Pilot, Brookings OR  July 31, 2015

Beatrice Dorothy “Dordi” Round passed from her toils on July 28, 2015. 

Dordi was born Aug. 18, 1920, in Cornwall on the westerly edge of England. 

A trained elementary teacher before World War II, her first teaching was done in the Industrial Midlands of England for as many as 50, five-year-old students, frequently in bomb shelters sitting in the dark singing songs, learning times tables and telling stories. She had a gift for engaging young children in learning. 

In 1949 she became an exchange teacher in Indiana and eventually had four years of college in Fresno, California. 

Dordi came to Upper Chetco School through mentors Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks, whom she met on holiday in Alaska, and who shared her love of travel. Her extracurricular interest in Native Americans and the countries of Egypt and Peru colored her usual instruction. 

She moved to Happy Camp and became close to the Forbes family. 

Dordi never married but loved her dogs; she lived a long Christian life. Her hobbies were eclectic: She was involved in the St. George Reef Lighthouse restoration project; Norway fascinated her and she traveled to see it more than once. She learned to read and write the older Norwegian and translated Norwegian journals of the early immigrants that settled around the Great Lakes. A book Telemark to America was dedicated to her for her efforts. 

No public memorial is planned.

Submitted by friends. 

 From: Telelaget: The First Hundred Years (2007) Pp. 140 &141      — Lorna Anderson

             Beatrice Dorothy Round was born in Cornwall, England, August 18, 1920. Although her parents were born inland, they loved the sea and moved to Marazion where her father was a schoolmaster and they lived in part of the school.

            Often during her childhood and youth, when Dordi came home with more shells for her collection or pieces of quartz or amethyst, her “mum” would say, “You began collecting shells when you were six months old. I wonder when you are going to stop.” Dordi has not stopped yet, with the best of her fossils on display in the Battery Point Lighthouse Museum. Her shell collection has specimens from many parts of the world.

            Dordi has been deeply interested in Norway since she was five, when at her English school she first saw a picture of a fjord. She made six trips to Norway ranging from two to ten weeks, with the last camping trip in Norway in 1996. She taught herself to read, write, and speak Norwegian.

            She wrote two family history books for her friend, Helen Houkom Forbes, translating from letters, old records, and Rikard Berg’s biography of Ole Bjørnsen Houkom, a great-great grandfather. She also translated Everyday Life in Telemark. The books, They Came from Kviteseid -Volumes I & II have been posted on the web and added on the Telelag site.

            In 1987 Dordi wrote a letter to then president of Telelaget, Glenn Nelson, wondering if she could become a member. We welcomed her into the Telelag, and in appreciation of all the work she has done translating material for our Telesogas and for our Telemark to America books, she was given a lifetime membership.

            Dordi went to Hockerill Teachers College and taught for five years in a slum school in the industrial midlands. This was during World War II when she taught 50 five-year-olds. Sometimes they had to go to the underground air raid shelters during the bomb raids. When the school shelter got flooded during heavy rains, the 150 children from the school walked a half a block to the local pub, which had a drier shelter.

            When Dordi’s father died, she changed jobs in order to be near her mother and two brothers. She taught at St. Hilary School from 1945 to 1949 and during the 1950-51 school year. She had been urged by an American pen pal working with the army in Europe to teach in America. After her mother died, Dordi made the move and spent a year on a teacher’s exchange in Indiana.

            From 1951-1955 Dordi lived in Fresno, California, where she worked towards her BA in elementary education and spent five years teaching in Orick. Then for six years she taught in a one-room country school in Brookings, Oregon. She sold her house and gave up her job to visit Norway. She went back to England for a visit and then returned to Brookings, Oregon. She moved on to Trinidad, California, where she taught for a year and then on to Happy Camp, California, for six years.

            Dordi purchased her present home in Crescent City, California, 29 years ago for $7000. It was a tumble down shack on a large lot. She fixed it up, doing 90% of the work herself. It has been a comfortable place to live with her two dogs. She loves the ocean and has been a member of the St. George Reef Light House Preservation Society for many years.

            Dordi has shared her own delightful stories and some of her poetry in two books about her life, Memories and More Memories.     

[Officers]