Barbara Lamb Dolezal
What do you remember about Barbara? Share your stories and photos here, and invite others to come share their memories.
Barbara Lamb Dolezal, world citizen, well-traveled, well-read, well-spoken and well-beloved, died on February 2, 2020 at her home in Watkinsville, Georgia. Born on March 30, 1922 in Chicago, and raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where she graduated from Glenbard West High School, she received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Beloit College in 1944.Her ancestral families brought together a transcultural community of generations. One branch of the family represented by a pilgrim father who came on the Mayflower to North America from a small town in England to escape religious persecution; another branch represented by a 19th century Jewish family from a small town in Bohemia who also came to this country to escape religious persecution. Barbara's indomitable spirit surely was the inheritance of the generations who came before her.Barbara met her husband Tom at college. They were married for 66 years, until Tom's death on April 7, 2012 in Eugene, Oregon. Tom was a decorated combat veteran who saw action in the British Royal Air Force and later in the US Army Air Corps. As a physicist and mathematician, he helped develop and implement navigational radar during combat in WWII, and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for valor, a Purple Heart, and Air Medal. Like so many of their generation, they married and started a family after the war. As a military wife, Barbara lived in the U.S. and abroad. Wherever she went, she immersed herself in the history, culture and cuisine of the local region. One of Tom and Barbara's great adventures took place in 1962 when they piled their children into a 1956 Plymouth station wagon and drove from Ankara, Turkey, through Syria and Lebanon to the gates of East Jerusalem. Along the way they walked the 'street called Straight', the alleyways of Bethlehem and old Jerusalem, and took side trips off desert roads to explore ancient Roman ruins. Barbara was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church, and a member of Tri-Delta Sorority. She loved to read, was an avid bird watcher, a great cook, opera lover, masterful seamstress, expert genealogist, and news hound. Barbara was preceded in death by her husband Thomas Riley Dolezal (Colonel, US Army, Retired), her parents Marion Kent Lamb and Arthur Daniel Lamb, and her son Peter Kent Dolezal. She is survived by her brother Arthur Daniel Lamb Jr.; her son and daughter, Fredric Thomas Dolezal (Athens, Georgia) and Mary-Lyon Dolezal (Eugene, Oregon); her grandchildren Gregory, Sarah, Adam and Benjamin; nieces and nephews, especially her beloved niece Cathy Lamb, great grandchildren, and life-long friends.Contributions in Barbara's memory can be made to The Audubon Society, Beloit College, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and The Nature Conservancy.