Carolyn A. Stewart Myers' Obituary
Carolyn A. Stewart Myers, 88, died peacefully on October 18, 2024, at Good Samaritan
Hospital following a period of declining health.
Mrs. Myers was born February 1936, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Edna and Fred Heid. As a child
growing up in Chicago, she spent many years of musical training becoming an accomplished
pianist and vocalist. She attended Augustana College, where she received BA in music in 1957.
While at Augustana she met and later married Rev.Wilton Anderson and they raised four
children to adulthood together as they worked to start Lutheran mission congregations in
Illinois and Washington. Her role organizing Sunday school, providing music, and hosting
committee meetings for 25 years was instrumental in establishing these mission churches.
They later divorced but remained respectful to one another until Wilton’s death in 2001.
Mrs. Myers was a dedicated educator, chaplain, mother, wife, and friend. Her initial career path,
primary school music, diverged to health occupations and allied health program development
that eventually converged with a religious calling to provide spiritual direction, and comfort to
the grieving. Mrs. Myers started out teaching music and then, after obtaining her PhD in
Education from the University of Washington in 1982, applied her passion to the healthcare
profession. For 26 years, Mrs. Myers worked as a health information specialist, developing
training programs at Tacoma Community College and, later establishing an allied health
program and instructing at The College of Southern Nevada, where she was granted Emeritus
status as Professor of Health Information Technology.
Following the death of her son in 1990, she retired from teaching and become an Associate
with The Sisters of Mercy (Mercy Center), completing an internship at San Francisco General
Hospital during the AIDS crisis. In 1999, she completed a Masters of Pastoral Studies at Loyola
University, New Orleans, and for the next four years served as a hospital chaplain at St. Rose
Dominican - Rose De Lima hospital in Henderson, NV, as well as chair of the bioethics
committee. She was a member of the National Association of Catholic Chaplains (NACC), and
an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
After 15 years in Las Vegas, Carolyn and her husband Robert Stewart retired to Air Force
Village in San Antonio, TX, where they shared 7 years together before Robert passed. Carolyn
stayed in Texas and later remarried to fellow resident Paul Myers until his death. During her
time in Texas she was a volunteer chaplain at Wilford Hall Medical Center where she provided
patient and family visitation in the Intensive Care Units for Pediatric, Neonatal, Medical,
Surgical, and Cardiology, with special sensitivity to parents and families of dying newborns and
children.
Mrs Myers made time to get away from work and enjoy the company of family and close
friends. She liked camping and hiking in National Parks, enjoyed cross-country skiing, and took
several trips to Hawaii. She spent time in Yamanishi, Japan learning Ikenobo Floral Art, traveled
to Germany for the 300th anniversary of composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s birthday, and to
Milan, Florence, Assisi, and Rome, Italy on religious pilgrimage.
Mrs. Myers returned to her beloved Pacific Northwest in 2017 to be with family and live out her
remaining days. She was an avid reader, disciplined in her work, adamant that education is key
to both personal and professional growth, and essential to a fulfilling life. She is survived by
three children, eight grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren.
A private graveside service will be held at the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO. In lieu
of flowers, donations can be made to the Dr. Howard Anderson Scholarship fund, Bellarmine
Preparatory School, Tacoma, Washington.
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