Shirley Dorin didn’t have any children, but she had hundreds of kids. 

The longtime community ambassador, staple of concessionary care and kindness, giver of treats, baker of butter tarts and rememberer of young people’s names passed away October 6. She was 70-years-old.

Shirley had an uncanny knack for remembering kids’ names, but the longtime owner of Shirley’s Place in the Jasper Activity Centre (she operated it from 1994 until her retirement four years ago) claimed she didn’t have the same skill when it came to adults.

“I’m not good at remembering adults’ names,” she said in 2017.

There was one adult’s name, however, that in 1968, a 17-year-old Shirley Dorin would never forget. The name was Mr. Bill Ruddy and Dorin had learned it from a girl who had just spent the summer working for Mr. Ruddy at the Columbia Icefields. She told Dorin, who was herself returning home from a trip to Jasper after a weekend with her girl guides group, about her summer spent on the glacier. Dorin thought it sounded like a dream.

“It sounded just like summer camp,” Dorin recalled. 

Although the Icefields job was no longer available (Ruddy had just sold to the Brewster family), Shirley was invited to the fledging Rainbow Tours operation at Maligne Lake. The wage was $1.65/hour and room and board was $60/month. As Shirley had hoped, it was just like summer camp.

“Nobody in the world had more fun than us kids at Maligne Lake,” she said.

Those Jasperites who grew up with Shirley as their surrogate aunt (and eventually, surrogate grandmother) might disagree. Generations of kids in Jasper have grown up eating at her concessions—after Maligne Lake at the Jasper Tramway, Shirley had a long stint as the owner of Scoops and Loops, then she got talked into running the concession at the new Jasper Rex Plex. Thirty five years, dozens of sports camps, hundreds of hockey tournaments, thousands of kids and tens of thousands of butter tarts later, on August 28, 2017 Shirley packed up her kitchen and called it a career. 

Jasper’s Lesleigh Campbell remembers that day well because she was afraid she and her kids would no longer have their weekly visits with Shirley. Her boys don’t have grandparents in Jasper and Shirley added that element to their lives, Lesleigh said.

“For us, she was a family member,” Lesleigh said. 

That’s the same way many Jasperites felt towards Shirley, and that’s the way Shirley felt about Jasper. Shirley was the recipient of the Mayor’s Recognition Award for Community Ambassadorship in 2010. Presenting the award, Mayor Richard Ireland remarked:

“This ambassador seems to never rest. There are likely few children in town who have not pestered their parents to stop by for a treat; there are likely few parents who have not relied on her for relief from cooking a meal. Seniors love her. And I expect that all over this province and beyond, when kids, parents, coaches, chaperones, instructors, teachers, swimmers, gymnasts, hockey players, wrestlers, volleyball players, basketball players, curlers and visitors recall a visit to Jasper, they think firstly and fondly of Jasper’s premier ambassador, Shirley Dorin.” 

Rest in Peace sweet Shirley. 

Bob Covey// thejasperlocal@gmail.com