Loralee McNeilly Hettinger

Loralee McNeilly Hettinger, avid outdoor enthusiast, passed away peacefully at home in Colorado Springs on September 30, 2025. She was 84.

Born on December 31, 1940, Loralee went to Edgewater High School in Orlando, Florida and later settled in Fort Lauderdale where she met her husband, Ted Stephan. Together they had two children, Cary and Larissa. They worked together in real estate development and later built a successful Shaklee nutrition business.

Loralee’s sense of adventure was sparked when she turned 40 and went on an Outward Bound trip in Utah. Soon after, Loralee and family moved to Colorado Springs where she met her true love, the Colorado mountains. She found her tribe in a group of female hikers who, over the next 20 years, summited 45 of Colorado’s 54 14ers as well as doing backpacking trips across the West and in the Alps, and remain friends today.

After she and Ted divorced, Loralee met her other true love, Jack Hettinger, through the Colorado Mountain Club and they shared over 20 years of marriage marked by hiking and cycling adventures. A love of the outdoors was the thread that wove across the decades of her life: in her 40s, she hiked Colorado’s 14ers; in her 50s, she and Jack voyaged to the Galapagos; in her 60s, she bicycled across the country; in her 70s, she journeyed to Antarctica; and in her 80s, she ziplined through the treetops of Costa Rica.

Loralee was a cherished member of several communities, from the Summit County Senior Center in Frisco, where she found new dear friends in the "Turtles" hiking group and other active groups, to her organizing trips to Live at the Met opera performances and to the Santa Fe opera. Her presence was a beacon of friendship and community spirit wherever she resided. She also devoted herself to being a loving Babi (grandmother) to her grandson, Chandler.

The saying “When life gives you mountains, put your boots on and start hiking” captured Loralee’s unflappable spirit and drive. When asked how she could ride her bicycle across the country, she said that she never thought of the 10-week trip in its entirety, she just got up every day and did that day’s mileage. She continued with that steadfast determination as she battled cancer. She embodied the practice of getting up every day, grabbing her hiking sticks, and getting out there.

Loralee is survived by her son, Cary Stephan (Jennifer); daughter, Larissa Lodzinski (Robert); grandson, Chandler Stephan (Anna); great-granddaughter, Aeralyn; niece, Ashlie Feng (Lee); and nephew, Austin Vaughn (Erika). She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Hettinger; her sister, Patricia Vaughn; and her brother, Michael McNeilly.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Loralee's memory to Summit Lost Pet Rescue (lostpetrescue.org) or to Pikes Peak Hospice (pikespeakhospice.org).