Lori Ann (Dunlap) Gordon

Lori Ann (Dunlap) Gordon, 57, of Carmel, passed away peacefully on Saturday, October 26th, 2024, at home surrounded by her loving family. Lori was born May 10th, 1967, in Indianapolis to Robert and Dolores (Cimmerman) Dunlap. 

Her smile, laughter, compassion, and kindness made her friend to anyone she met. To know her is to love her. She fought an unrelenting battle with cancer for the past year with the same strength, dignity, and conviction with which she lived her life. She worked hard every day to make a positive impact, leaving a beautiful legacy to cherish. 

Through her beautiful spirit, Lori unselfishly lived her life serving others. After graduating from Indiana University with a degree in elementary special education, she spent 25 years teaching with a “student first” mentality in challenging yet highly rewarding environments. For the last 15 years, she gave her best heart every day as an intensive behavior special education teacher at Prairie Trace Elementary in the Carmel Clay School District. Her coworkers highlight how she believed that every child is capable of learning and how hard she worked to preserve the dignity of every student. To witness her living her passion for teaching and the close bonds she developed with her student “friends” was simply beautiful to experience. 

Lori met her loving husband Kevin in 1991, and they were married on July 16th, 1994, in Indianapolis, having just proudly celebrated their 30th anniversary. They were blessed with two kind and caring children, Emily and Andrew, who will proudly carry forward her legacy for serving others, with Emily also in education and Andrew in law enforcement. Her greatest love and pride came with being a mother. 

Sharing any time with friends and family made her happy. Being a voracious reader, she would find quiet time almost anywhere to relax with a book. Besides home, her happy places were at any beach or at her lake house on Cordry Lake with a morning walk/kayak, sunset boat cruises, floating on a raft, sitting by a fire, or just relaxing on the deck (usually with a book). She also loved her lab-mix rescue dogs, Zoe and Sadie, and they loved her.

Lori is survived by her husband, Kevin; children, Emily C. Gordon and Andrew D. Gordon; father, Robert Dunlap; sister, Lisa Heisler; brothers, Robert Dunlap and Mark Dunlap; mother-in-law, Mary Gordon; brother-in-law, Christopher (Christy) Gordon; nieces/nephews Alex, Sydney, Mary Grace, Mia, Molly, Ethan, and Tommy. She was predeceased by her mother, Dolores Dunlap and father-in-law, Philip Gordon. 

Family and friends are invited to gather for a visitation from 2:00-6:00pm on Friday, November 15th at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church (Westfield), followed by a memorial Mass at 6:30pm. Interment will be Saturday, November 16th at 11:00am at Our Lady of Peace Cemetery (Indianapolis).

A Celebration of Life reception will be held Saturday, November 16th from 12:30 – 3:30pm at The Bridgewater Club (Westfield). 

 In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Love of Labs Indiana https://lolin.org/donate/ or to the Kidney Cancer Association https://www.kidneycancer.org/ways-to-give/. Or simply contribute to any organization meaningful to you that benefits children or animals. 

Please visit www.flannerbuchanan.com to sign the online guest register.