Lorraine LaConti Roth Herrenkohl

A bright light to all who knew her, Dr. Lorraine Rita LaConti Roth Herrenkohl, passed away peacefully on April 18, 2025 surrounded by her beloved family.

Lorraine was born on October 27, 1937 to Mr. John LaConti and Helen Papalski in Jersey City, NJ and grew up in Bayonne, NJ. Raised within a tight knit Italian community, Lorraine's early years were difficult financially and emotionally. Living in the tenements and with parental mental illness, Lorraine played a major role caring for her two younger siblings Claire and John.

Lorraine was extremely bright and excelled academically, graduating Valedictorian and winning multiple awards and scholarships while attending Bayonne High School. When she wasn't studying, she was a member of the Jersey Jolters roller derby team which led to an offer to skate at a professional level. A passionate life-learner, Lorraine chose to pursue academia instead. She attended Douglass College on scholarship, graduating with a B.A. in Psychology and a PhD. in Psychology from Rutgers University. She was also a National Institute of Health Fellow and a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton and Cambridge Universities. At Princeton, she was one of the first female Post Doctoral students. In Lorraine's words, "it was always the intersection of nature and nurture that intrigued me the most. I always wanted to know what makes people tick."

Lorraine was a champion of workplace and education equality for women, willing to take on any hurdle that she faced. She accepted a teaching role at Temple University in Philadelphia, becoming the first female, tenured professor in the psychology department. Confronted with the lack of daycare for working mothers at that time, she often brought her preschool aged daughter into the classroom. Lorraine advocated for the need of daycare, ultimately receiving funding from the university and founding the first daycare center for Temple employees.

During her 25 plus years at Temple, Lorraine's research focused on maternal stress on offspring, collaborating with international and national scientists, publishing numerous scientific studies and lecturing on her findings. This became a cornerstone for how she saw a need for stress reduction in mothers, winning multiple awards and fellowships for her groundbreaking research and discussions on women's health.

Lorraine would often say, "You don't have a career for a lifetime, you can have a lifetime of careers." In addition to teaching, Lorraine also ran her own private practice, conducting therapy well into her 70's. Lorraine's work with clients brought her much satisfaction. Seeing the effect that substance abuse had on her clients in her own community and a need for adolescent mental health support, Lorraine cofounded Daemion House in Berwyn, PA.

Always looking for ways to make a difference, she recently focused on the psychology of positive aging and created a lecture series that she took on the road, delivering to churches and senior centers.

Lorraine was a force of nature, a true leader and innovator, a champion of women's issues, engaged in Democratic politics--still making constituent phone calls into her late 80's.

Lorraine was first married to Jay S Roth (father of daughter Maren Roth Levine) and then to Karl Herrenkohl (father of daughter Alicia Herrenkohl Nathanson). Lorraine loved her two daughters and adored her five grandchildren - Sarah, Noah, Hannah, Ansel and Augie. She was elated to welcome her first GREAT grandchild in summer, 2025. Her family was everything to Lorraine. Having lost her siblings to cancer, Lorraine's family was small and she cherished what she had. In addition to her two daughters and their spouses - David Levine, married to Maren and Gabe Nathanson, married to Alicia, she is survived by her niece Alyce (Mark) Buchholz and great niece Erica and nephew Daniel.

Lorraine made an impression on everyone. Always curious about the people she met, she thrived on discussion and learning about others. She delighted in hearing the goings on with her family and asked about them daily. Larger than life, with her orange lipstick and orange nails, and customary BIG bow atop her head, she stood out. Everyone knew Lorraine. Throughout all of her hospitalizations and declining health in her final years, she continued her fierce resolve to survive and live. She never wanted to give up.

The family asks that donations in Lorraine Herrenkohl's name be made to SurreyServices.org under the heading of Positive Aging.