Geraldine Ruth Dorminy

Geraldine “Gerry” Ort Hyers Dorminy, 90, of East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, passed away on Thursday, July 5, 2023. Born in Brackenridge, Pennsylvania to Aubrey and Hattabelle Ort, she was the middle child between Bette and Marjorie and Paul and Georgea. The Orts moved to Clearwater, Florida where Gerry graduated from Clearwater High School. She attended Carson Newman College in Tennessee, where she met her future husband Merritt “Conrad” Hyers. After marrying in Clearwater, the new couple relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where Gerry earned an education degree at Eastern University, in St. Davids, student teaching at Radnor High School, in Wayne while Conrad worked on his PhD in Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. They started their family in New Jersey, where sons Jon and Dean were born, then moved to Wisconsin, where their daughter Lauri was born. The family eventually moved to St. Peter, Minnesota, where Gerry taught high school Spanish and provided ad hoc Spanish translation for local social service agencies. Due to her love of choral masterworks, she initiated the founding of the award-winning St. Peter Choral Society, a community choir that performed for four decades, beginning with Handel’s Messiah. In addition to spending most summers with Conrad in their lakeside cabin in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest, Gerry lived abroad three times: First, with the family in Hawaii where Conrad took a sabbatical at the East-West Center; later, solo, when she was an adult exchange student living with a family in Toluca, Mexico; and finally, with Conrad in Kirkaldy, Scotland where they did a church/house swap for a season. Upon retirement, Gerry and Conrad spent many years going between Florida and Minnesota and Pennsylvania. After more than 50 years of marriage they moved to East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania until Conrad passed away in 2013. Gerry remarried to a former Clearwater High School classmate Jack Dorminy when they were both in their eighties, living with him for more than 6 years in Crystal River, Florida, until he passed away in 2021. She spent her final years living with her daughter in East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania. Gerry is preceded in death by her parents, and sisters Bette Higgins and Marjorie Austin. She is survived by her brother Paul Ort of Florida and sister Georgea (Scott) Von Lutcken of New Jersey, son Jon (Karen) Hyers of Minnesota, Dean (Kim) Hyers of Minnesota and his sons Ethan (Sydney) Hyers and Aaron Hyers, and Lauri Hyers of Pennsylvania and her son Shannon (Claire) Hoffman. A Celebration of Life memorial service will be held on Saturday, July 15, 2023, visitation starting at 11:00 a.m. until the time of service at 12 noon, with interment to follow in the adjacent church cemetery at the Doe Run Presbyterian Church, 3104 Doe Run Church Road, East Fallowfield, Pennsylvania, 19320. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy at www.superiorwatersheds.org , in homage to Gerry’s fascination with Prehistoric Glacial Lake Agassiz. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Wilde Funeral Home of Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. Online condolences can be posted at www.wildefuneralhome.com .