Obituary for Afghanistan RPCV Carol Helm
Carol Helm died March 16, 2003 at Hospice of the Valley. Born Carol Hope Shaw on December 20, 1922 in Lorain, Ohio, Carol was a Valley resident since 1953.
Carol enjoyed a varied, colorful and adventurous life. As a young woman in Ohio, Carol was an office worker for wartime defense industries. She married a soldier in 1943 and after the war made a home for them and the three children that followed. In 1953 Carol took those children on a cross-country wintertime auto jaunt to Phoenix, where her husband had moved for health reasons. Carol worked in a variety of real estate sales and management positions while raising and educating her children.
Following the death of her husband, Gordon Garber, in 1972 Carol went back to school, earned her teaching degree and joined the Peace Corps. She served in Afghanistan for five years as an instructor at the Institute for Industrial Management, for the Ministry of Education in Kabul Afghanistan. Her major responsibility was teaching business skills to Afghan high school students. Having a love of Afghanistan she continued to live in Kabul, working in an administrative capacity for the US Agency for International Development for the University of Nebraska at Kabul University. She also served with the CARE/Medical Chief Medical Officer at Avicena Hospital in Kabul.
After returning from Afghanistan, she pursued the teaching career that she loved. Arizona children in Rough Rock, Patagonia, Nogales and Young were her great joys in classes she designed and taught for adaptive education and special needs students. Carol continued her education, achieving multiple Masters degrees in challenging aspects of education.
In 1994 Carol became reacquainted with an American businessman she met in Kabul almost 20 years earlier, which sparked a romance with the love of her life-and soon to be her husband-H. Max Helm. All of both their children were proud witnesses to their wedding in December of that year.
Carol loved and revered her family-her mother and father Minnie Louise and Charles Oscar Shaw, and her sisters Elfrieda and Charlotte and brother John Wesley (Wes) and all their descendents. The recent Shaw family reunion held in Vermilion Ohio was a true joy to her.
All her Internet friends were also dear to her--the letters are worn off the key caps on her computer, which she used nearly every day of her life until the last few weeks.
She is survived by her husband Max; children Gary and Sharol Garber, and Noelle Collins; grandchildren Shane and Rayna Collins, Jonathan and Nicholas Garber and Andy Miranda; and great-grandchildren Evan and Brielle Hester.
Carol loved turning strangers from around the world into heartfelt friends--we all are better for knowing her. The family requests in lieu of flowers a contribution to the Arizona Cancer Center, P O Box 245024, Tucson AZ 85724.
There will be a viewing with family at Tempe Mortuary, 405 E Southern from 6 to 8 PM Thursday March 20, and a Mass of Remembrance at the Church of the Holy Spirit, 1815 E Gemini Dr in Tempe at 10 AM Friday March 21. Travel is not recommended at this time, so please wait a while and then take a trip to someplace you've always wanted to visit, make some new friends and remember what Carol meant to you.
