Loreen M Irving Obituary
On March 31, 2019, our mother was welcomed home with open arms. Loreen M (Cox) Irving was born on January 23, 1950 to Walter and Florence Cox. The third child of 4, she grew up in Coulee City, WA where she graduated in 1968. After attending a Bible college in South Dakota for about a year, she made her way to California where she met her first husband Willard Steele. In May of 1978, she gave birth to her daughter Ardele Steele. After a divorce, it took another 5 years before she met and than married William Irving on February 14, 1986 on a rainy/flood filled night in Santa Ana. In September of 1988, the family grew from 3 to 4 with the birth of William Irving II.
Loreen had worked her way from a temporary job all the way up to being a Senior Contract Administrator for IBM in the Torrance, California office. When circumstances changed they decided to seek other opportunities in Washington State.
One of her biggest regrets was that she never had a college degree so she chose to change that by going back to school and graduated from Big Ben Community College with an Associate’s degree, than moved on to Eastern Washington University, receiving a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Social Work.
She worked with mostly at risk youth and kids that were caught up in the foster care system due to circumstances beyond the child’s control. She helped several rise above what they thought they would or should be and helped them complete their high school education and go on to college and better lives.
During her time in college, her husband was deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the 1161st Transportation Company from Ephrata. With her love of God, family, and country, she threw herself into providing service and support to the soldiers and the families that were impacted by the deployment through the Army Family Program and was recognized for her efforts with the Washington State Army National Guard Commander’s Award for Soldier Support.
She was so full of life… so much fun. She never had a bad thing to say about anybody unless you were talking politics and then all bets were off. As the years went by her health went downhill, but through it all she never lost her spunk, free spirit nature, wit nor laughter and especially love. Love for her family, friends, and her faith.
She survived by her daughter Ardele Steele, her son William Irving II, her siblings and their spouses Gloria (Authur) Huwe, Melvin (Sybil) Cox, Ron (Betty) Cox, and several nieces and nephews and their children.
She was preceded in death by her parents Walter and Florence Cox, her nephew Mark Huwe, and several uncles and aunts.
At Loreen’s request, no burial service will take place. The family will arrange for a Celebration of Life service at a later date.
Loreen was very passionate about the Wounded Warrior Project and the programs offered through the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). In lieu of flowers, a donation in her name to either or both groups would be greatly appreciated.
