Reflecting on my Former Ferrum College Colleague Carolyn Thomas
Dean Browell
Social Media Research Innovator - I believe persistently illuminating, understanding, and advocating for populations will empower decision-makers and improve outcomes.
If you’ll allow me a moment, I want to remember my friend Carolyn L. Thomas who passed away this week - and whose birthday it is today. I first met her twenty years ago, and I’m sad to say it has been too long since I saw her last.
My time working at Ferrum College feels like a lifetime ago, and in fairness life has changed quite a bit for me since then. But if there are any constants in this universe it’s the strength and sincerity of some of the friendships formed within the community of Franklin County.
Take a look at the photo on the right from 2004. (I know it’s blurry - bear with me it was a time where 1 megapixel cameras were EXPENSIVE - and not a great photo of anyone.) It’s a photo from Addy’s Baptism at the chapel at Ferrum College. Bob and Carolyn are chatting with my Dad, who had spoken on campus to their students just the year before. On one hand, it’s indicative of what a family of friends the colleagues were - a true community. But more importantly I want you to look at how Bob is looking at Carolyn. That look - this feeling of love, respect, and almost this feeling of, “Gee whiz how did I end up with her?” - that was every single look he ever gave her. So often we all saw it that it’s easy to take for granted. And boy was it reciprocated. Between each other and from them to everyone they ever impacted, from students and friends and faculty and staff.
Carolyn had an amazing way of making you feel like you were the only person on the planet when she was listening to you. The way her face could light up, eyebrows punctuating your words, at not just things that interested her but things that interested you. She was your biggest fan if you were showing interest in the world and people.
There was a time where every time I thought of, never mind traversed on or near, Smith Mountain Lake I’d think of her and all her work to watch over it like a Mother Earth we didn’t deserve but appreciated. Yesterday, as I crossed the bridge of a reservoir near where we live and looked out on the water I thought about Carolyn and all the lives she touched. One can only hope to be remembered the way she will be by so many - and to have made our lives so much brighter because of it.
I was lucky to have known her my entire time at Ferrum and a little (but sadly, not enough) beyond. My deepest and most sincere love and thoughts to Bob, their family, and the wider family for which she was such a delightful and wise heart.