Carole Rogel Poirier

Carole Rogel Poirier was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 30, 1939 and died on September 30, 2024 in Columbus. She graduated from Euclid High School in 1956; received a BA from Flora Stone Mather College (Western Reserve University), Cleveland, in 1960, and from Columbia University in New York three degrees: an MA (1961) , a Certificate from its Institute on East Central Europe (1962), and a PhD (History) (1966). She taught in the History Department of Ohio State University from 1964 until her retirement in 1990. From 1988 to 1990, she was Vice Chair of the department. She was a long-time member of the American Historical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for Southeast European Studies, of which she was president in 1981, and the Society for Slovene Studies, of which she was president from 1984 to 1990 and Treasurer from 1998 to 2012, and the American Association of University Professors (OSU Chapter Secretary, 1973-74). She authored numerous books and articles on Slovene and Yugoslav history, and lectured extensively on the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In 2002 the Republic of Slovenia awarded her an Honorary Gold Medal of Freedom for contributions in America to the scholarship and teaching about Slovenes and Slovenia.

Her husband, Philip P. Poirier, once also on the History Department faculty at OSU, pre-deceased her, as did her parents, Theresa Rose (Kmet) Rogel and her father Janko Rogelj, and her brother Iko Rogel (Searchlight, Nevada). She is survived by many cousins in Cleveland, Ohio and in Slovenia.

A private family interment will take place in Chardon, Ohio. In lieu of flowers donations in her name may be made to History Department at the Ohio State University https://history.osu.edu/igive or to the Society for Slovene Studies https://slovenestudies.com/donations