Carol was born on Oct. 29, 1938 in Dinuba, Calif. Her family moved to San Diego in 1944. She was raised there and graduated from Helix High School in 1956. She graduated from California Western University in 1964 earning her bachelor’s degree in education and the following year getting her teaching credential.

At different times in her life, Carol taught for the Grossmont Unified School District, Coos Bay Community College, National University K-12 school, San Bernardino Community College and Lake Elsinore Unified School District.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s and again in the early 1970s, Carol was a renowned long-distance swimmer. She swam in the U.S., Mexico, Italy and Turkey. She was honored by the U.S. Embassy in Turkey for swimming the Dardanelles and breaking the swimming record on the Bosporus. She was given the key to the city and a parade in El Cajon for her record-setting swim from the South Coronado Island, Mexico, to Point Loma, Calif. Carol was also elected to the San Diego Hall of Champions.

Carol married, adopted a son and went to college to get her bahelors’s degree, teaching and counseling credentials and master’s degrees in psychology and business management.

In the early 1980s she was program director of the downtown Y.W.C.A. where she worked with the Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Arthritis Foundation, United Way, San Diego Zoological Society, Camp Fire Girls and the Girl Scouts. She was also active in Soroptimists during this time and again in Oak Harbor in 2010 and 2011.

Most of her adult life she was involved in education and working with teens. She was a teacher, counselor and supervisor at the high school and community college levels. She retired from the Lake Elsinore Unified School District in California. In 2003, she moved to Whidbey Island to be with her son and his family.

During the 1990s she was very active with the Vista Women’s Club where she was chairwoman of the environmental committee whose purpose was to educate young children about protecting our environment. She was given a plaque from the U.S. Forestry Department for her work in this area. She was an honorary member of the Lions Club before women were allowed to join.

Carol survived breast cancer and took care of her mother in her final years as her mother was confined to a wheel chair with arthritis and also battled Alzheimer’s. In 2004, she survived the terrible death of her only child, Darryl.

In California, she was active in her church where she filled in as part-time secretary, taught Sunday school classes, and at one time chaired the wedding and baptismal committees.

After moving to Whidbey Island, she was active in Whidbey Presbyterian Church, where she was a deacon from 2011 to 2015. She was instrumental in starting the Sack Lunch Ministry, a program to feed needy teens. She enjoyed being in the Red Hat Society and Dugualla Bay Heights Women’s Club, where she was president from 2007 to 2009 and co-president in 2011-2014. She also was in a creative writing class where she wrote and recently published her autobiography, “By the Sea.” She left all proceeds to the WAIF animal shelter on Whidbey Island.

Carol loved to cruise, visit other countries, swim and read. She also loved to hike as long as she was able. Being two-thirds Scottish, with four different clans in her background, she loved the bag pipes. She loved all animals, especially cats. But most of all, she loved her small family and all her wonderful friends.

After a long battle with a number of health issues, Carol passed away peacefully on Oct. 24, 2016. Carol is survived by three grandchildren, Shannon and Meghan Starke and Kelly Calvert of Plano, Texas; daughter-in-law, Kari Calvert (Andy), of Texas; sister Joan Smith, of Arizona; two nephews, Terry (Marisa) and Randy Smith of San Diego, Calif.; and grand-niece Sabrina Smith, of Arizona. Her parents Ralph Chaplin and Erletta Armstrong Chaplin and son Darryl Starke preceded her in death.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5 at Whidbey Presbyterian Church in Oak Harbor, Wash. Cremation and scattering of her ashes will be off of Point Loma in San Diego, Calif., and will be attended by family and close friends.

In lieu of flowers, please send remembrances to Whidbey Presbyterian Church, Deacons Fund, or Whidbey Animals’ Improvement Foundation.