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Doris Louise Caballero Van Aken passed away peacefully at home on February 20, 2022. Doris was born in New York, NY on January 25, 1924 and grew up in Chicago. The oldest of five siblings, she attended Lake View High School in Chicago and took an interest in the arts and sciences. She went on to attend Ripon College in Wisconsin, graduating with majors in Math and Physics. Out of college, she went to work at a research lab at Bell & Howell, where she developed a novel method of measuring lens coatings, presenting a research paper on the subject to the American Society of Optical Engineers. In recognition of her accomplishments, she was the only woman inducted into the Society in that year. She also taught college level physics to officers-in-training in the Army. In 1951, she married John T. Van Aken, originally of Coldwater, Michigan, who practiced law with Seyfarth Shaw, a labor relations firm in Chicago. They raised a family of two boys in the suburb of Western Springs, Illinois. After relocating to New York for four years, they returned to Chicago briefly before retiring to Santa Barbara, California in 1984. During her married life, she was active as a volunteer in various political campaigns, at hospitals in New York and Chicago, and in the Drug Prevention Office of the County Health Care Services of Santa Barbara. Upon moving to Santa Barbara, Doris concentrated on the visual arts, taking up watercolors. She was a member of the Goleta Valley Art Association and the Los Padres Watercolor Society. Other interests included tennis and duplicate bridge. She was preceded in death by her husband John, and is survived by their sons, James Hugh and John “Jack” Robert Van Aken along with Jack’s wife, Kathryn Marsailes. She is survived as well by her beloved sisters Betty Tipton, Nancy Garniez, and Pat Clemens, and brother Jim Caballero. Any contributions may be made to the Mental Wellness Center (Mental Health Association in Santa Barbara County).
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