Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home

CUYAHOGA, OHIO - Carlene Ruth Wooster King, 73, crossed the finish line of her earthly race on October 22, 2016. She was preceded in death by her husband Dale King and her mother Leona Wooster, and is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Meredith and Matt Riordan, her father Carleton Wooster, her brother Raymond Wooster, and her sister-in-law Mary King.

Growing up on the coast of Maine, Carlene learned early the value of hard work, from raking blueberries to canning fish, but her professional interests lay elsewhere. She earned her undergraduate degree from South Carolina’s Bob Jones University and her graduate degrees (both an MA and a doctoral equivalent (MLitt) from Vermont’s Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. In pursuing these degrees and doing additional programs, she also studied in Montreal, Canada; Oxford, England; Paris, France and Florence, Italy.
Carlene taught English at the collegiate level at Bob Jones, at Malone College (now University) and, during a yearlong exchange professorship, at Hong Kong Baptist College. However, the majority of her teaching career was spent working with slightly younger students. After thirteen years of teaching high school English at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, she relocated to Florida, where she finished her career teaching middle and high school English and French at The Geneva School in Winter Park. The students fortunate enough to have had Mrs. King remember her enthusiasm for language, literature, and culture, and her creative ways of encouraging students to share this enthusiasm.

While loving to study and read about the world, Carlene also loved to experience it firsthand through her travels, especially to Europe. This passion for world travel was another way in which she influenced her students; leading multiple trips during which dozens of students became acquainted with many of the great cities of Western civilization.

Although her hobbies often concerned the academic sphere, Carlene was a wonderful cook as well. Besides her more standard culinary repertoire, a cake-decorating course taken when Carlene was in her thirties led her to create myriad magnificent desserts over the years, and in her forties, she channeled her coastal Maine heritage and began hosting lobster dinners.

Carlene was a woman of many talents and a believer in using them for the glory of God. In addition to weaving spiritual insights into her teaching of language and literature, she taught Biblical truths to countless more students through volunteer work with Sunday school, Junior Church, and Vacation Bible School programs. But in some ways, her most effective teaching method was simply the gracious and godly life she lived. Even in recent years, when Parkinson’s had compromised her both physically and mentally, she never complained, and her faith remained strong. She will be greatly missed.

Funeral services were held in Ohio. A graveside committal service will be at 11:00 a.m., Monday, October 31st at Achorn Cemetery, Old County Road, Rockland. Pastor Stephen Tracy will officiate.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy (www.cvcaroyals.org), The Geneva School (www.genevaschool.org), or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (www.michaeljfox.org).

Local arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.