Carole Marks
Born in San Francisco, Carole, whose grandfather was minister of the First Presbyterian Church on Anapamu St., was a third generation Santa Barbaran. She began school in Rochester, Minn., where her doctor father was interning before opening his practice on the Monterey Peninsula. Carole attended Carmel High through her junior year and moved to Connecticut for her senior year at the Ethel Walker School. Her college years were spent at Stanford where she majored in Spanish Literature.
Here she met Bill on a blind date that lasted for the 65 years of their marriage. She moved with him to Santa Barbara in 1961 when he joined the faculty of the UCSB English Dept. Carole was a seeker and in the 70’s became a follower of Baba Muktananda, traveling to India where she spent four months in his Siddha Yoga ashram. Later in the decade she spent a summer at the American Ashram in the Catskills, where she drove an airport shuttle to Kennedy, picking up devotees from countries all over the world.
Carole was a remarkable driver who only need to drive a route once to have it memorized, after which she never bothered to read street signs. In the 80’s Carole took a job as a loan officer with the Santa Barbara Housing Authority.
During the Painted Cave fire of 1990 she served the local Red Cross as a Director of Volunteers and oversaw the computerization of office records. In 1996, following the defeat of Single Payer Proposition 186, Carole invited around 100 of the disappointed campaign activists to a November meeting at the Westside Community Center, a meeting which resulted the foundation of Health Care For All-California. After which she became the first President of its Santa Barbara chapter.
In her later years Carole, who was an avid reader, greatly enjoyed the discussion meetings of the Faculty Wive’s Book Club, or “Bookies”. Her death followed a long battle with myelofibrosis, a rare and incurable form of cancer.
He survivors include her husband Bill, her daughter Catherine, son Cullen and siblings Anne, Judith, Shayala, and Steve.
