Jean Marie Davis Lorenz

On May 14, 2025, Jean Marie Davis Lorenz died at home in Fallston, Maryland. Mrs. Lorenz was born on August 19, 1925, in Keyser, West Virginia, the daughter of Albert W. and Katharine Piper Davis and the granddaughter of Thomas H. and Della Chidester Davis of Keyser. She was also the granddaughter of Michael Jacob Piper and Agnes O’Connor Piper Connelly of Eckhart, Maryland.

After graduating from Keyser High School in 1942, Mrs. Lorenz attended Potomac State College in Keyser graduating in 1944. She continued her education at Shepherd College (now University) in Shepherds-town, West Virginia, where she graduated in 1946 with an A.B. Degree in Secondary Education with concentrations in Spanish and French. While studying at Shepherd, Mrs. Lorenz was also the executive secretary to A.D. Kenamond, Shepherd’s first academic dean and founder of The Jefferson County Historical Society. She continued in that capacity until 1955, when superintendent of Jefferson County, West Virginia, Schools T.A. Lowery asked her to join the faculty at Charles Town High School to establish its first modern foreign language department, beginning with Spanish and adding French as enrollment grew. In 1961, Mrs. Lorenz was selected to attend the first Spanish Language Institute under the direction of Dr. Francisco Herrera at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, where she completed her master’s degree in Spanish in 1964.

During her tenure at Charles Town High School, Mrs. Lorenz established The Gordon Eismon Chapter of the National Honor Society and The Don Quixote de la Mancha Chapter of the Spanish National Honor Society. She implemented the first language laboratory in Jefferson County and wrote an Individualized Continuous Progress Program in Spanish that was used as a model throughout the state. She retired from teaching in 1980.

In addition to her parents and grandparents, Mrs. Lorenz was predeceased by her first husband, C.W. “Cop” Shipley, her second husband, H.A. “Zip” Lorenz, her sister, Irene Davis Sisler, and her nephew, Albert Davis Sisler. She is survived by her daughter, Jan, her son-in-law, Dr. William K. “Hap” Roth, Jr., and her nephew, Harland E. “Mike” Sisler, Jr.

Memorial donations may be made to The WVU Foundation, One Waterfront Place, 7th Floor, P.O. Box 1650, Morgantown, WV 26507 Attn: Rylee Colebank or online by visiting the WVU Foundation website at www.wvuf.org. Please designate The Frank Herrera Scholarship Fund, Fund ID #35429.