Carolyn was very active during her Stivers High School days. She was a two-letter winner as a member of the gymnastics team specializing in floor exercises, and vault. She also lettered two years as a cheerleader serving as Captain her senior year. She was on the journalism staff, a teacher’s assistant, the student council, Elder-Beerman High School Campus Board, sang in the choir, was a springboard diver, performed in the school plays and taught elementary students tumbling and cheerleading.
She was on the Queen of Hearts Court and nominated for Homecoming and Prom Queen and also voted Miss Stivers along with Mr. Stivers, Jim Campbell, who is also a Stivers Hallof Famer.
After graduation, Carolyn attended Miami-Jacobs Junior College and took classe sat Wright State University and the University of Chicago. She and her husband Jim moved to California in 1985.
As impressive as all her accomplishments are in her life up to this time, they don’t compare to what her two sons, Sean and Jared, referred to as her “Second Act” which began at age 50 after 20 years of being a stay-at-home mom.
Carolyn was hired by a local school district to assist them with their first visually impaired student. In typical Carolyn fashion she took on the challenge and remained withthis student from third through eighth grade.
She taught herself braille, studyingevenings and weekends. Her student finished high school and attended college.
Carolyn completed the formal braille work and was certified by the National Library of Congress as a braille transcriber at the age of 58. The County Office of Education recruited her to produce braille for the visually impaired students in the county. She went on to learn Nemeth Code for math and science notation, tactile graphics and other images. She also mastered the braille codes inSpanish and French in 2009.
She opened a braille center in Brentwood, California, and was nominated for County Employee of the
Year in 2014. Carolyn retired the day before her 70th birthday in 2020 after 18 years of serving visually impaired students. Carolyn and her husband Jim, live in Brentwood, California and enjoy spending time with their family, especially their three grandchildren.
