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Carol Jean Paton Walsh ’49

Carol Jean Paton Walsh ’49, January 21, 2004, in New York. Carol received a bachelor’s degree from Reed in anthropology and philosophy, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a master’s degree with honors from Columbia University School of Library Sciences, and worked not only as assistant librarian at Suffern Free Library, but was reference librarian for the New Milford (New Jersey) Public Library, pioneering library services for the deaf. "As a small-town reference librarian," she wrote, "I have thanked my lucky stars many times for those humanities courses, one semester of etymology, and the inter-divisional major [at Reed]. (We call ourselves the last of the generalists.)" Carol was active in the League of Women Voters. She was an accomplished singer, who performed with the Bach Chorale of Oxford University. In 1946 she married James J. Walsh ’49, and they had two sons. At the end of her life, Carol developed advanced dementia from Parkinson’s disease. She is survived by her sons, four grandchildren, a brother and two sisters. James Walsh predeceased her.

Appeared in Reed magazine: August 2004

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