Obituary of Dorian W. Maguire

Dorian Wiggin Maguire, 64, a longtime resident of Short Hills and loving mother of three sons, passed on April 15th, 2026 peacefully at her home in Springfield, New Jersey.  

Visitation will be held on Friday, April 24^th from 4:00 – 8:00 PM at The Jacob Holle Funeral Home, 2122 Millburn Ave., Maplewood. A Memorial Service will be celebrated at Christ Church, 66 Highland Ave., Short Hills on Saturday, April 25^th at 11:00 AM.

Dorian was raised in Short Hills, New Jersey, and as an adult spent more than ten years living in Europe, including time living in Hungary, Switzerland, and England, before ultimately returning to Short Hills.  She most recently lived in Springfield, New Jersey.  

She attended Millburn High School, graduating in 1980, before studying at Hartwick College and continuing her education at Fairleigh Dickinson University.  In her career, Dorian gravitated towards fields that allowed her to express her creativity and artistic abilities, including a marketing position at AT&T, and later working in advertising at Nabisco, a role that she thoroughly enjoyed.  

As a mother, she embraced the challenge of raising young children in foreign countries, she attended every soccer, baseball, football, and basketball game, she baked chocolate cakes for every birthday, and she was always there for her sons to offer love and support.  She was thrilled to dance with her son Patrick at his wedding to his wife Jessica, and to embrace a new family as part of her own.  Her love for her sons was at the center of her life, and brought her immense joy.  

Throughout her life she filled sketchbooks with her ever-flowing imaginations, accumulated canvases to create wonderful representations of the world around her, and collected innumerous supplies to ensure that any new idea could quickly be turned into a new work of art.  She liked to create, assemble, tinker, and most importantly share her passions with others. 

She dreamed of living in a little house on a beach, one with a covered porch and adirondack chairs, so that she might be able to recapture the feelings she had as a child when she and her family spent their summers with her grandparents in Maine.  Her happiest childhood memories were of wandering the beaches at her grandparents’ Maine home and searching for the prettiest shells in the shallow ocean water.  

Dorian cared deeply about those that she loved, and was happiest when spending quality time with her family and friends. 

She is survived by her son Patrick Joseph and his wife Jessica; her son Sean Christopher and his fiancé Marisa; her son James Patrick III; her sister Darby and her husband Steve; and her niece and nephew Caitlin and Steven. She was predeceased by her parents Ralph Mitchell Wiggin III and Margaret Joyce Cudlipp Wiggin, and ex-husband James Patrick Maguire Jr. 

For more information or to send condolences please visit jacobhollefuneralhome.com