Carol Douglas, 58, passed peacefully on June 29, 2019. Carol was born to Robert and Joyce Coley in Denver, Colorado. She moved with her mother and siblings to a sheep ranch near Meeker, Colorado in her early teens. Her ranch girl upbringing gave her a love of the outdoors, of simple pleasures and of running. She ran distance events in high school and at Colorado State University. Her record in the Meeker 4th of July Run for Your Life 10K stood for 20 years. She graduated from Meeker High School in 1979. She enjoyed summers in the California wine country with grandparents and cousins.
Her college studies took her to Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colorado, then to Colorado State University, where she competed in track and cross-country ski racing. She earned a math degree from CSU and settled in Fort Collins with first husband Tim Smoot. They had two daughters, Kimberly and Kelly.
In 1992 she met Scott Douglas, and the two married in Fort Collins, Colorado in March 1993. Daughter Lily was added to the family, and in 1999 they loaded up the truck and moved to Asheville, North Carolina. Their life together included travels about the country and to Germany and Norway, hiking, cross-country skiing, mountain cabin weekends, backpacking, raising three daughters, hosting foreign exchange students from Brazil, Germany and Norway, and attending kid’s activities: band concerts, dance recitals, theater productions, track and field competitions, and soccer games. She joined Fellowship Asheville with Scott because her heart resonated with the service ministry of that congregation. Hers was an unsophisticated, but grand and rewarding life.
Carol found her professional muse in teaching and advising. She taught math at Enka High School, then at A-B Tech Community College. She moved to a general advising job, then found her perfect professional fit as RIBN Coordinator for A-B Tech and Blue Ridge Community Colleges where she recruited, advised, encouraged (and occasionally nagged) students in a nursing program that begins at the community college and culminates with a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Western Carolina University. Her job category was Student Success Advocate, a title most apropos. She invested heavily in her students and was known to personally provide additional assistance to students with food insecurity.
Carol was intensely curious, continuously learning, and always willing to ask questions. She was quick to act and loved trying new things. She was quick to forgive and pursued the truth. She is described as unpretentious, encouraging, giving and humble. She ran in competition, then for enjoyment for as many years as her legs would allow. Later in life she walked in the woods, on the beach, and in the neighborhood, often with her husband. She was the initiator of family events: holiday gatherings, Christmas tree hunting, “Grammie Camp,” hikes and simple get-togethers. Never wanting to accumulate stuff, her preferred birthday gift was to receive a phone call from family and friends. After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she provided encouragement to many in the “cancer family.” Her final days were as she wanted them to be, a final trip to Colorado and returning home to be in company with her husband, daughters, and grandchildren.
Preceded in death by her parents Robert (Bob) Coley and Joyce Stoddard, she leaves behind a sad but blessed family: Husband of 26 years Scott Douglas, daughter Kimberly Blake (Ben), daughter Kelly Smoot (Dan Hartley), daughter Lily Douglas, grandchildren Sam Blake and June Blake, sister Leslie Kancilia (Howard), brother Steve Coley (Jayne), nieces Dayle Goodman and Grace Coley, and nephews Tanner Kancilia (Tia) and Harrison Coley.
We will gather to weep, laugh, and celebrate her life and goodness at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 13, 2019, at Fellowship Asheville, 756 Fairview Rd, Asheville, North Carolina.
Honorary pallbearers are the many nurses she advised in the past several years. You were the inspiration for her to go to work each day.
Contributions in her memory can be made to the A-B Tech Foundation to endow the Carol A Douglas Nursing Scholarship: https://www.abtech.edu/giving or Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://www.pancan.org
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My heart is sad for the loss of my friend❤️