Carol Ann Wingeier Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Carol Ann (Wise) Wingeier, of Asheville, NC, died on July 4, 2019 of the effects of diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease. She was born June 21, 1930, in Calhoun, GA, daughter of Harry A. and Anna Maude (Harmon) Wise. She is survived by her husband of 67 years, Douglas E. Wingeier of Asheville, daughters Ruth Marie (John King) of Long Prairie, MN, and Martha Emily of Boulder, CO, and sons Stephen Gilbert of Atlanta, GA (Dawn Aura), and Philip Douglas (Diana) of Silver Spring, MD, nine grandchildren and one great-grandson. Carol was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Harry, of Toccoa, GA, and two infant granddaughters. Ms. Wingeier attended the Calhoun Public Schools, graduating in 1947. She attended Georgia State College for Women (now Georgia College) in Milledgeville, GA, earning a BS in Business, in 1951. Twenty years later, in 1971, after raising a family and ten years of missionary service, she gained a Master's degree in Elementary Education from Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. She and Doug were married in Calhoun, GA, on June 14, 1952--a year to the day after they had met in a Methodist Youth Caravan training center at McMurry College, Abilene, TX. Carol was strongly influenced by childhood experiences in the Calhoun Methodist Church, and then in the Wesley Foundation at GSCW. This led her to volunteer to serve one summer in a Methodist Work Camp at Simpson College in Iowa, and the next as a Youth Caravaner in Texas, where she and Doug met. After returning home from that experience she soon took the bus to Boston where Doug was starting seminary, and worked in the Cokesbury Book Store and then the Registrar's office at Boston University. Married a year later, the couple served a year in youth ministry at Fisk Memorial Methodist Church, Natick, MA, and two years as pastor-and-spouse at Graniteville (now Westford), MA. They shared common interests in Christian education, social and racial justice, and global mission, which led them first to three years of educational ministry with University Methodist Church in Tulsa, OK, and then three more with Carter Memorial Methodist Church, Needham Heights, MA, while Doug completed his PhD, and Carol was a stay-at-home Mom raising Ruth (born in Graniteville), Stephen (Tulsa), and Martha Emily (Needham). Feeling the call to missionary service, Carol and Doug underwent preparation at the Missionary Orientation Center in Stony Point, NY, and study of Mandarin Chinese in the Institute for Far Eastern Languages at Yale University. They were commissioned as missionaries of the Methodist Church in 1962 and assigned to Singapore, where Carol served as the founding director of a bilingual kindergarten at the Foochow Methodist Church and gave birth to Philip, while Doug was teaching at Trinity Theological College They served there 1963-70, including a home assignment 1966-67 in Chicago, where Carol began her Master's studies. A half-century later she was invited to return to Singapore to participate in the kindergarten's 50th anniversary. Unable to do so, she sent her greetings via video. Returning to the United States in 1970, Carol with her family moved to Naperville, IL, where she completed her studies at Roosevelt, and after graduation taught in nursery schools, then served as Educational Enabler in Wesley Methodist Naperville, Wesley Methodist Aurora, and after their move to Evanston at Methodist churches in Glencoe and Glenview, IL. Later she utilized her business training by working in several departments at Northwestern University and in various Chicago-area companies. In Chicago she re-connected with her Appalachian culture, learning to play the banjo, joining in jams, attending folk concerts, and developing her clogging skills. During this time Carol was also active in United Methodist Women, and in various peace and justice causes, such as the United Farm Workers boycott, the Nuclear Free Zone movement, care for the environment, and gay and women's rights. She and Doug also served stints as mission volunteers in Haiti, Palestine, Samoa, Korea, Hong Kong, and back in Singapore. Moving to Lake Junaluska in 1997, Carol tended a large garden, a small orchard, and a yard full of flowers, plus hiking the Appalachian Trail, engaging in the folk music scene, and protesting nuclear weapons, torture training at the School of the Americas, and the Iraq War. Since moving to Brooks-Howell Home in Asheville in 2008, she has been involved with First Congregational United Church of Christ, Central United Methodist Church, and, with her banjo, a weekly blue grass and old-timey music jam. For many years Carol enjoyed gardening wherever she lived, cultivation at her small farm in GA, camping and canoeing with her family, and roughing it at her log cabin in MN--expressions of her love for nature, country living, and the out-of-doors. Carol will always be remembered for her engaging smile, her creative teaching skills with children, her faith-based dedication to peace and justice, her grounding in her Appalachian roots, her banjo and clogging abilities, her global perspective, and her devotion to family. A celebratory "wake" for Ms. Wingeier will be held at Brooks-Howell Home on Friday, August 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m., followed by a memorial service on Saturday, August 3, 10:00 a.m. The burial will be at the Curtis Family Cemetery in Calhoun, GA, on Saturday, August 3, 6:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), 123 W. Madison St., Suite 2150, Chicago, IL 60602, the United Methodist Women (UMW), 475 Riverside Drive,15th Floor, New York, NY 10115, or the Alliance for Global Justice, 225 E 26th St Ste 1, Tucson, Arizona 85713-2925 (for either/both Nicaragua Soliidarity Committee and/or School of the Americas Watch).

Tributes

Carol Ann Wingeier

June 21, 1930 - July 4, 2019