Carol A. Ellsworth

Carol Annabell Ellsworth was born April 23, 1929, in Safford, Arizona. After a short illness, she passed from this world on March 26, 2024, attended by her sister, niece, and nephews, in Provo Utah near her beloved Brigham Young University.

Carol is the daughter of William Leslie Ellsworth and Trella Scarlett. Carol was a beautiful baby and the second of four daughters. She started her life as Annabell, but her name was quickly changed to Carol, except on her birth certificate, which she shockingly discovered when applying for her first United States passport.

Carol’s early years were in and around Safford where she spent time helping Daddy and Mother around the farm and home, building forts and exploring the nearby hills with her older sister Mary Alice and her Ellsworth cousins, and sometimes with her two younger sisters, Ethel Jean and Diane. On the farm Carol learned the value of work from her father. In her home she learned from her mother to love books and reading, and how to maintain a home. From Daddy and Mother, she learned to love the gospel of Jesus Christ and to love her Heavenly Father and Savior, her heavenly heritage, the value of family, and serving others. She was surrounded by strong female role models who taught her that her possibilities were endless. 

Carol loved school and excelled at learning. After graduating from Safford High School in 1946, she attended Eastern Arizona Junior College where she earned her associate degree. She then attended Colorado State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in home economics education, followed by a master’s degree from Columbia University and a PhD from Brigham Young University.

After graduating from Colorado State University in 1951, Carol began her teaching career in Colorado where she taught for two years before returning to Arizona and taught home economics in Tucson until 1957. In 1957, she was contracted by the United States department of defense to teach Air Force dependents in Turkey, Japan, and Spain. She enjoyed these four years and traveled all over the world. She wondered at how a single girl from Safford could be walking through Hong Kong, Nepal, India, Iran, and Thailand (to name a few), and relished in the choices she had made to get there. Carol loved to travel almost as much as she loved her students. It was only when Daddy called to tell her it was time to come home, that she left her nomadic teaching life and returned to Arizona.

Upon her return to the United States in 1961 she continued teaching, first at Camelback High School in Phoenix while she pursued and earned her master’s degree. Carol then was hired by the Arizona Department of Education as an assistant state home economics supervisor. In 1969, Carol accepted an offer to teach at Brigham Young University in the College of Family Living. She taught future home economics teachers, earned her PhD, was the chair of the Department of Home Economics Education for nine years, and retired in 1994. She cherished her time at BYU and the friendships she made with faculty and students, even acting as an occasional matchmaker. At the time of her death, she was still regularly communicating with former coworkers and students. 

Carol was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the time she first heard gospel principles taught by her parents. She loves her Heavenly Father and Savior and often shared her feelings about them. She served in many church callings. Some of her favorites were in Primary and Young Women, but she always loved her Relief Society teaching responsibilities the most, including serving on a Church Headquarters Relief Society curriculum writing board. Throughout her life she quietly sponsored 31 missionaries to spread the gospel she loved across the globe.

Carol served wherever needed. She emulated the Savior’s call to “lift the hands” of those in need. She volunteered for decades with the Utah Youth Village and later with the Utah County Children’s Justice Center, where she created many, many, many stuffed bears for children who needed a ray of sunshine in a stormy world. She loved to visit the Giving Machines each Christmas and buy goats or pay for teaching supplies for those in need. To enable students to pursue a life of learning as she did, Carol established a Phi Kappa Phi scholarship at BYU.

Carol was proceeded in death by her parents, her sisters Mary Alice Smith and Diane Gourdin, and by her brothers-in-law George N. Smith, Melvin E. Gourdin, and Kenneth N. Nicoll. She is survived by her sister Jean Nicoll and numerous nieces and nephews and their families. 

Funeral services will be held Friday, April 5, 2024, in the Sharon Park 1st Ward meetinghouse located at 310 N. 100 E. Orem, Utah. Services will be at 11:00 am. A viewing will occur prior to the services at the church from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Interment will be at the Orem City Cemetery.