Memorial is today for former area chaplain

Mark L. Dorff, the former chaplain of Oklahoma Methodist Manor, died Wednesday. He was 75. Dorff was born Feb. 13, 1934, to Anabel and Earl Dorff.

His father was a minister, and the younger Dorff began his work with churches even before graduating from Classen High School in Oklahoma City.

A memorial service is set for 11 a.m. Friday at the First United Methodist Church under the direction of Ninde Brookside Funeral Home.

He then graduated from Oklahoma City University and the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a United Methodist graduate school in Evanston, Ill.

In 1983, he received an honorary doctorate in divinity from McMurry University. Dorff was a minister for seven congregations in New Mexico over a 30-year career.

During that time, he also was appointed to be the New Mexico Annual Conference's mission and administration conference director and a district superintendent.

Dorff retired in 1997, but he soon returned to work as an interim minister of two churches and as the interim executive director of the Mount Sequoyah Conference and Retreat Center in Fayetteville, Ark.

In Tulsa, he was the chaplain for the Oklahoma Methodist Manor and was director of church relations for the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation.

He is survived by his wife, Ann Dorff; one daughter, Tracy West of Albuquerque, N.M.; two sons, Gregory Dorff of Lincoln, Neb., and Kevin Dorff of New York City; one brother, Bishop James Dorff of San Antonio; and eight grandchildren.