Laura Lawrence Good died peacefully, surrounded by family, on the evening of January 4, 2023, in Portland, OR.

The second of Robert and Eleanor (Thompson) Lawrence's three children, Laura was born in Wilmington, DE, on September 29, 1934. She was a curious and active child who enjoyed canoeing the Brandywine River, riding bikes, playing in neighborhood football games, walking on stilts, and participating in her Girl Scout troop's many activities. She was an honor student at P.S. du Pont High School, class of 1952.

Laura was always interested in figuring out how things worked and coming up with improvements. To that end, she graduated from Cornell University in 1956 with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and spent her professional career at technology companies. A phrase that started many sentences was, "It's interesting because…," and high praise was her declaring a person, place, gadget, or idea as "really neat."

While working at GE in the late 1950s as an infrared systems physicist, Laura met and married James L. Good, Jr. They lived in Ithaca, NY—where their daughter Marian was born—and Syracuse, NY. Then they made the big move to California's San Francisco Bay Area, where their son James III was born.

While her children were young, Laura did all the usual suburban "mom" things: cooking, cleaning, and taking the kids to music lessons, sporting events, and club activities. She helped create a Community Center that provided services to immigrant children and their mothers, and she was the leader of her daughter's Girl Scout troop. She worked hard and expected others to do the same. She would say goodbye to her children by saying, "Work hard"; Marian and James were amazed to realize that other mothers told their kids, "Don't work too hard."

After safely launching her children in elementary school, Laura herself went back to school, taking computer science (referred to at the time as "data processing") classes at the College of San Mateo. She held junior and/or part-time positions at several companies and then landed a job at Anderson Jacobson as a senior programmer analyst. She later attended San Jose State University, obtaining a Master of Science degree in Computer and Information Science. She joined Intel Corporation in 1982 as a senior evaluation engineer and was promoted several times. In the mid-1980s, Jim and Laura moved to the Portland, OR, area, partly so Laura could continue her career at Intel in the role of manager of the language evaluation group. Jim and Laura divorced in 1990 but remained life-long friends.

Laura's final and probably favorite position at Intel was as University Technical Liaison. She helped determine what research would most likely benefit Intel in the next three to five years, found universities conducting it, and helped establish and manage grants to fund it. This job meant she traveled to domestic and international institutions to see what they were working on. Her children are sure Laura always had plenty of suggestions for improvements, too!

After retiring in 1999, Laura continued exploring the world with her analytical and improvement-oriented focus. She loved the arts and attended many plays, concerts, and lectures, and visited as many art museums as possible. A highlight every year was her visit to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, where she would attend lectures and productions of that year's plays. She completed at least one crossword puzzle per day. She dutifully took French lessons, although she never considered herself fluent. She kept up with global events and worried about the state of everything! She delighted in hearing about people's adventures and accomplishments.

Laura continued to travel, visiting family and friends far and near, and going on tours. She visited every continent except Australia; particular highlights were Africa and Antarctica. She was an avid collector of souvenirs that were much more than mere trinkets. Instead, she would procure a work by a local artist, usually a painting, including one that had not quite dried when purchased and packaged! She eventually turned this collection into a curated home exhibit, complete with a guidebook and placards.

Laura was generous to friends, family, and causes, donating time, money, and other resources as she was able. Examples include an Israeli friend's daughter staying with her one summer while attending theater camp; Laura paying for and accompanying another friend's elementary school class to the Oregon coast; her guest room becoming a refuge for people when they needed a place to stay; and, one memorable summer, her hosting her daughter, son-in-law, and a granddaughter for several days of tours and plays at the Ashland Shakespeare Festival.

Access to education was important to Laura, and she supported the Kensill Fund for Hope, established by her sister and brother-in-law, to help students from inner city Philadelphia afford higher education. She funded scholarships at Portland State University, San Jose State University, and Cornell University, and she supported non-profit organizations engaged in medical research, racial justice, women's issues, environmental causes, and initiatives benefiting Portland's unhoused.

Throughout her life, Laura remained dedicated to Unitarian Universalism. Wherever she lived, she became an active and generous member of her local congregation, often serving in financial leadership roles.

In 2015, Laura moved to Holladay Park Plaza (HPP), a senior community in Portland. She loved her beautiful apartment and the community of active, intelligent, and creative seniors. She was involved with HPP's scholarship fund, which provided tuition assistance to HPP employees, and would chase down wait staff and healthcare workers to ask them if they'd applied. She continued attending cultural events; keeping up with friends, family, and current affairs; avidly tracking the stock market; and working on jigsaw puzzles.

Laura did things her way! In childhood, she was always picked by her brother, Bill, to play on the neighborhood football team. She was a sure thing for at least one touchdown until the boys caught on that she was pretty good. She was a drummer in her high school marching band and was one of only two women in her Cornell class to major in physics. She was happy to prove a point by engaging in these activities, but that was not why she did them. When something interested her, she followed the thread wherever it took her, regardless of the obstacles or others' opinions.

Sister, Mom, Granny, mother-in-law, friend, neighbor–we'll miss you: your dry sense of humor, your analytical mind, your generosity, and your laser focus on improving the world. We love you!

Laura was predeceased by her sister, Winifred Kensill, and her former husband, James Good, Jr. She is survived by her daughter, Marian (Matt) Gallagher; her son, James Good, III (Melissa); her brother, William Lawrence (Catherine); and her granddaughters, Eleanor Good and Kelly Good.

While no service is currently scheduled, a celebration of life ceremony will be announced at a future date. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Portland State University Foundation's Robert and Eleanor Lawrence Scholarship would be greatly appreciated. You may use this link in your web browser: giving.psuf.org/lawrence