Carol Rouillard Wolff

December 24, 1931 – September 13, 2023

Carol Rouillard Wolff passed away at her home in Sacramento, California on September 13, 2023 after suffering a stroke the week before. She was 91.

Carol was born in Boston, Massachusetts on December 24, 1931 to William V. Sreenan and Rebecca (Hyde). She lived with her maternal grandparents, Douglas Hyde and Minerva (MacDonald) in North Adams, Massachusetts until she was 8 years old while her mother worked as a physical therapist and her paternal grandmother took care of her father who had tuberculosis.

Carol’s life was full of music. As a child she played the piano, sang in various church and community choirs and took tap dancing lessons. She attended Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts where she majored in music. She sang in “The Wheatones” barbershop choral group and in her college choir and performed piano recitals throughout her college years. In addition to her love of music, Carol loved the water, particularly the ocean. Throughout her life she swam regularly and at Wheaton, was on the synchronized swimming team.

Carol met her first husband, Lawrence (Larry) Hadley Rouillard, in 1951 when she was a mother’s helper for a family at Drakes Island, Wells, Maine. They were married in 1953, shortly after Carol graduated from college. Larry was attending the Episcopal Theological Seminary (now called Episcopal Divinity School) in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Carol sang in its choir. When they moved to California in 1955, she sang in the church choir and participated in her husband’s ordination. Throughout the many moves from California to New England and back, Carol found ways to express herself through music as a singer, accompanist and piano teacher to two of her three daughters.

In 1981, Carol and Larry moved to Portland, Oregon where Larry became the minister at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in downtown Portland. Carol sang in the choir and occasionally played the organ at church services. From 1984-92, Carol sang in the “Aurora Women’s Chorus”, a community chorus in Portland, Oregon and was honored to perform with the Tillamook Community Chorus at Carnegie Hall in 2005.

Carol’s husband died suddenly in 1983, the day before their 30th wedding anniversary. A few years later, Carol went back to school and obtained a master’s degree in music therapy from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. There, Carol learned to play the guitar, autoharp, various wind and percussion instruments, tone chimes, marimba and congas. She was self-employed as a music therapist for 14 years, working primarily with older persons in senior centers and respite programs.

In 1985, Carol married Bernard (Bernie) Ryan Wolff, a Portland native with two adult sons. She and Bernie bought a house at Netarts Bay on the Oregon Coast near Tillamook which they, and their children and grandchildren, enjoyed as a vacation spot. Carol and Bernie moved there in 2002 and stayed for 6 years before returning permanently to Portland in 2008. They were married for 30 years, until Bernie’s death in January 2016.

Beyond her life full of music, Carol raised a family and worked in a variety of organizations over 20 years. From 1955-1972, Carol was primarily a homemaker and volunteer, raising three daughters, taking in foster children, serving on community boards, organizing a babysitting pool and organic produce delivery program, and supporting her husband in his campus ministries in Claremont, California and Durham, New Hampshire.

Over the years, Carol proved her invaluable worth that led to many leadership roles from coast to coast. In 1971, Carol was hired as the assistant director to help develop a community health center in a rural town in New Hampshire near Durham. She worked as a program consultant/trainer at the Center for Constructive Change in Durham from 1975 to 1977. She also served as the Executive Director of the Fair Housing Council in Orange County, California after she and Larry moved to Irvine, California in 1977. Other positions Carol held included Funeral Director for the Corinthian Group in Portland, Oregon; Administrative Assistant for the National Organization for Women-Portland OR Chapter; and self-employed Music Therapist, in Portland and in Tillamook.

Carol is preceded in death by her first husband, Lawrence Hadley Rouillard, her second husband, Bernard Ryan Wolff, and her second daughter, Rebecca Ann Rouillard. She is survived by her daughters Michelle (Shelley) Rouillard of Sacramento, California and Holly Rouillard Johnson of Edwards, Colorado, stepsons from her second marriage, Christopher Wolff (Terrie) of Milwaukie, Oregon and Scott Wolff (Concetta) of Lake Oswego, Oregon, and grandchildren Lauren Nicole Rouillard LeBov of Sacramento, California and André Laurent Johnson of Deerfield Beach, Florida. Her step-grandchildren are Andy Wolff (Cindy), Erin Wolff Combs (Jared), Leslie Wolff, Allegra Wolff and Ace Wolff, all of whom live in the Portland, Oregon area.

The family is planning a Celebration of Life in Portland Oregon in April 2024. Persons interested in honoring Carol are encouraged to donate to Habitat for Humanity at www.habitat.org.