Obituary of Carol A. Poole

Carol Ann Poole, 82, passed peacefully from this life with her family beside her on Thursday, August 15th at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House after a brief illness. 

Born in Middlesex, New Jersey to Elmer Schuyler and Margaret Emma Apgar (née Inscho), Carol discovered a love for music at an early age. A gifted pianist and vocalist, she graduated from Bound Brook High School in 1960.  Carol felt called to nursing for her career.  She graduated from the School of Nursing at the Brooklyn Methodist Hospital in New York in 1963.  Carol’s empathy for others and unfailingly calm demeanor in a crisis made her an ideal registered nurse. Her career spanned the operating room, cardiac care, women’s health services, Alzheimer’s care, palliative care, and geriatrics. Her touch and desire to listen comforted many during her years of work at Raritan Valley and Princeton Hospitals in New Jersey, Atria facilities and the Scandinavian Home in Rhode Island, along with Beacon Hospice in Massachusetts. She was renowned for her “pain free” injection technique. Carol took pride in always giving her full effort for her residents. She sought to pass on that work ethic and a patient-centered focus to the younger generations of clinicians she mentored. She cared for aging neighbors and friends wherever she lived and always traveled with her Kelly clamp at the ready in her purse.

Carol met her husband, Frank, on the sands of Ocean Beach, NJ, where he was working as a summer lifeguard. They married in 1963, when Frank began his studies in Princeton to become a Presbyterian minister.  In addition to their faith, they shared a love of nature and a strong desire to preserve it for the future. In 1971, they built a summer cabin in Maine for their family, surrounded by pine, beech, and birch trees. 

Carol served musical director, choir director, pianist and accompanist at churches in New Jersey, New York, and Maryland, while continuing her work as a nurse.  She and Frank raised  three children, whom Carol would often refer to as her “most precious gifts.” Carol encouraged both their intellectual curiosities and artistic pursuits. She created parent volunteer programs in her children’s school districts and organized daycare services for the hospitals in which she worked. Carol consistently committed her time to her children, supporting their studies, their various lessons, rehearsals, and after-school activities. Her creativity with clothing design and her skills as a draper and tailor led her to become a costume designer for the Island Moving Company in Newport, RI while her daughters danced with the company. 

Carol retired to the family cabin in Maine in 2011.  The wind in the trees, the migration of birds, the changing of seasons, and the glory of sunrises brought her peace and stillness there.

She is survived by her children: Rebecca in Ohio, Sarah (Antoine) in Montréal, and Ethan (Rebecca) in Massachusetts, as well as her brother, William (Barbara) in New Jersey.

Carol’s family is grateful for the compassion and care offered at the end of her life by the staff of both the Maine Medical Center in Portland and Gosnell Hospice, along with the myriad of caregivers at Central Maine Health who enabled her to live a fiercely independent life in the woods of Maine as she wished.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Carol’s memory can be made to the Thompson Lake Environmental Association:  https://thompsonlake.org/membership/memorial-giving/.