Lauren Kathleen Angleton's Obituary
Lauren Kathleen Angleton, born June 3, 1987 in Evansville, Indiana, died on February 6, 2020 in Bend, Oregon. She was a 32- year old single mother of two adopted kitties named Scooter and Tommy. She worked as a Process Engineer for Suterra, a specialty chemical plant located in Bend where she lived with her boyfriend Alec Bridenstine for the past four years.
She was born in southern Indiana but spent her elementary years in Macon and Rome, Georgia where her father worked as an engineer. She spent her middle and high school years in Lakeland, Florida after yet another transfer and move. She graduated with honors from George Jenkins High School in Lakeland where she excelled in all math and sciences. Lauren realized early on that she wanted to be a Virginia Tech Hokie after attending a football game during one of her father’s reunion weekends in Blacksburg, Virginia. She enrolled in the Chemical Engineering program at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2005. She excelled in school, working two semesters as a co-op student for Dow Chemical at their West Virginia and Texas chemical plants and graduated with the class of 2010. Lauren was lucky to be working the co-op part of her education in West Virginia when the tragic shooting at the Virginia Tech campus in one of the engineering buildings took 32 lives. She did return to campus to support her schoolmates in the healing process after the tragedy.
Lauren began her professional career when she accepted a job with Dupont Chemical in the summer after graduation. She began working in their Kevlar operation in Richmond Virginia and was later transferred to help start up the new Kevlar super plant built by Dupont in Charleston, South Carolina. After three years Lauren was again transferred to help build and start a new Dupont plant near Ankeny, Iowa that was a first of its kind trial plant designed to produce ethanol for fuel from corn stalks left over after a farmer’s harvest. Ankeny is where she met the love of her life, Alec. After 4 years in Iowa and with Dupont about to merge with Dow Chemical, Lauren decided to make a small turn in her career. She and Alec had visited central Oregon for a friend’s wedding and fell in love with the scenery, the beer and the friendly people. She applied for and got a job as Process Engineer for Suterra which is a specialty chemical plant that produces pheromones (a natural pesticide) for their parent company (The Wonderful Company) and other farmers who want to control bugs without using harmful chemicals. She and Alec loaded up the truck and they moved to … Oregon (rather than Beverly Hills).
Lauren is survived by her parents, Dave and Debbie Angleton of Florida, Grandmother, Dolores Angleton also of Florida and Step Grandmother Doneita Neukam of Indiana. Uncles and Aunts Mike and Laura Mierzwinski, Earl and Kathi Sexton, Dennis and Jeri Brown (Uncle Fred to Lauren), David and Cinda Brown and Vernon and Denise Haley. Cousins Amy, Kevin, Carrie, Tracey, Cathryn, Josh, Amanda, Mindy, Kaitlyn and Kristyn. She was preceded in death by her Grandfathers Hugh Angleton and Forrest Brown and Step Grandfather Alfred Neukam along with Grandmother Alberta Neukam and Uncle Douglas Angleton.
Lauren’s funeral service will take place at Gentry-Morrison Serenity Gardens Chapel located at: 3350 Mall Hill Drive, Lakeland, Florida 33810 on Friday February 21, 2020 at 11 am. There will be a visitation from 9 - 11 am at the funeral chapel just prior to the service. Phone 863-858-4474.
In lieu of flowers please make donations to causes and/or charities that Lauren and Alec supported which included local animal shelters, homeless shelters and their alma maters Virginia Tech and Iowa State. Go Hokies.
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