Doris Jean Michelin passed peacefully on Monday, February 10th due to complications from her year long fight against lymphoma.
Doris Jean Green was born and raised in Rushing, Arkansas in 1945, the youngest of three children to Gladys and Calvin Green. She grew up on a small working farm in the Ozark Mountains where her family raised cattle, horses, and grain. She began her lifelong love of sports, especially basketball, as a point guard on her school’s teams, and continued her passion for basketball as a 20+ year season ticket holder to the Sacramento Kings!
Doris graduated high school early and enlisted in the United States Army as a surgical nurse at age 19. She believed the Army would enable her to expand her small town horizons, and she began her enduring patriotism and support for the military. She completed her basic training in 1965 at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and was commissioned as one of the youngest Lieutenants ever in the nursing corps. She was stationed at William Beaumont Army Hospital in El Paso as a surgical nurse and trained corpsmen on sterile operative techniques and specialized in setting up forward MASH units. In 1966, she represented the Army as a Princess to the New Years Day Sun Bowl football game.
Doris met Robert Edward Michelin, while working in an Operating Room at William Beaumont. Doris and Rob have been devoted to each other for 52 years of marriage. Between the time they married in 1967 till both retired from active duty and settled in Grass Valley/Nevada City in 1974 they moved nine times while having three children. Doris took an immediate interest in local schools and children’s education, a passion she would hold for the remainder of her life. She served as a President of the PTA, spent 9 years on the NJUHSD board during the time Bear River HS was approved and built, and was a founding member of drug task force CAUSS which is still operational. She also managed Rob’s medical practice and was a dedicated fan and driver for the multiple activities of her three kids. She could always be found cheering on the pool deck, the sidelines of a gym, a performance or choir concert; Doris was an advocate for both hers and the lives of other kids.
Travel was Doris’s vocation. She planned and executed many international trips for her family and with Rob in their retirement. She especially loved Ireland and also chaperoning four international trips with the NUHS choir. She was a member of Soroptimist International for 20 years and an early participant in its women’s investment group SWIG. Spending time dining with friends, going to church and sharing margarita’s with Rob and many friends, new and old… Doris loved socializing.
Doris was preceded in death by her parents, sister Norma and brother Charles. She is survived by her loving husband, kids Marita (Andrew), Kara (Tom), and Brett (Rachel). She loved spending time with her grandkids Avery, Andrew, Ashley, Lola, Brynna, and Mckenna.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Grass Valley on Wednesday, February 19th at 1:00pm in the afternoon.
