CLTA Remembers

Carol Eberhart

CLTA Mourns the Loss of President-elect Carol Eberhart

Carol Woodward Eberhart, gone too young at age 53, survived by her husband, George A. Eberhart of Carmichael and other family members.

Carol Eberhart taught college Spanish and won accolades in spite of rheumatoid arthritis which she contract at seven years old. In later years, one doctor in particular stood out, a Peruvian healer, a curandero. The medicine allowed Carol to drink and breathe better.

Carol was devoted to public service, acclaimed in academia and dedicated to a life of travel. She also lived a modern-day love story with a man who first kissed her on New Year’s Eve in 1977, married her in 1984 and later accompanied her on her travels.

But it was her optimism and commitment that carried her through her journey in academia. She received her master’s degree in Spanish with a minor in Portuguese from California State University, Sacramento. She earned her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature at the University of California, Davis, in 1991. The next year, George Eberhart began caring for her full-time and helping her travel as she presented papers at conferences and workshops.

She taught Spanish at the university level for 30 years, serving as an adjunct professor of Spanish at UCD, CSUS and American River College. In 2000, the College of Arts and Letters of CSUS chose her as its Outstanding Alumnus.

CLTA awarded Carol the Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Outstanding Teacher Leader award for the state of California in 2003. And she was named Outstanding Teacher of the Year by the Foreign Language Association of Greater Sacramento in 2006. She was director of the Capital Foreign Language Project, president-elect of the California Language Teachers Association, and she was active in several other academic groups.

Eberhart said his wife was low-key about her accomplishments. She had none of the awards and recognitions on display in their home or her offices. She did not volunteer that she had a Ph.D.

“We’re very modest,” he said. “Our lives were based on service.”

Perhaps that explains what Mrs. Eberhart once told her husband she wanted on her tombstone.

“She wanted, ‘Carol was always nice,’ ” he said, adding, “and she was.”

CLTA encourages everyone contribute to the Memorial Fund in Carol’s name.