Carol A. Harrison died at her Fieldbrook home on Thursday, May 17, 2018 with her wife, Pam, by her side, after a three-month battle with ovarian cancer. She was 62 and a 30-year resident of Humboldt County.

Carol was born Dec. 10, 1955 in Sacramento to Jim and Caroline Harrison who recognized early that their energetic girl had a gift for learning, talking and sports. Parks and recreation leagues lead to a successful high school career playing volleyball, basketball and softball.

After graduating from Encina High School in Sacramento as class valedictorian, Carol attended UC Davis, majoring in political science while playing intercollegiate volleyball and basketball. It was there that Carol met Pam, and they began their 42-year journey together. In her senior year, Carol became the first female in 56 years to be awarded the coveted W.P. Lindley Award given to the outstanding student in athletics, scholarship and student service. Carol received her Masters in Journalism at UC Berkeley.

Carol spent her early working years writing for the Lesher Communications Inc., as a sports writer and sports editor for the Valley Pioneer, and sports writer for the Valley Times. In addition, she produced the North Coast Section basketball programs and began her 25-year career of coaching women’s basketball as an assistant coach at Cal State Hayward. Her next stop was UC Berkeley, where she coached the JV team for several years and then accepted a full-time position as an assistant for the varsity squad, where she ultimately was named senior assistant. After eight years as a Pac-10 assistant, Carol followed Pam to Humboldt State University to be her assistant and eventually succeeded Pam as head coach. Carol helped rebuild a program that ultimately won its first ever women’s basketball league championship (1994) and competed in the regional finals. She developed All-Conference post players 12 of 14 years at Humboldt State and three consecutive Conference Freshman Players of the Year.

At 48, she successfully coordinated an election campaign to pass a local school bond measure and returned to journalism, becoming the health, education and travel section editor for The Eureka Reporter. After the newspaper folded, Harrison split her time between freelance journalism, college teaching and marketing/public relations consultation for a variety of local nonprofits. She became part-time program director for the Project for Senior Action.

Carol loved college football season and her Cal Bears in particular. Besides the college football season, in Carol’s mind the best sport viewing was the men’s and women’s college basketball “Road to the Final 4” and the Masters. An avid golfer who could hit the ball a country mile, her only regret is she did not play enough golf. But the time she was not golfing was spent designing, planting, hauling materials, watering plants and loving her garden. It’s her pride and joy since leaving coaching.

Carol’s other loves were adventures associated with travel — museums, learning about new cultures, wine and wildlife — that led to numerous National Parks and foreign countries. Her trip of a lifetime was to Antarctica, where she fell in love with penguins. As any good journalist would do, she captured these memories in Shutterfly books that she designed and wrote.

Carol is preceded in her death by her parents Jim and Caroline Harrison, and uncles, Charles Sweet and Hal Fraser.

Carol is survived by her wife, Pam Martin; her two sisters, Karen Clevenger and her husband Gene; and Tracy Harrison. She is also survived by her niece, Kristi, and her husband, Roy Gage; niece, Samantha Clevenger; nephew, Tim Clevenger; three great nieces, Kailee, Reese, and Addison Gage; and aunts, Dorothy Schumacher Fraser and Margaret Harrison Sweet; cousins, Janet Caldwell, Barry Fraser, Chip Sweet and Steve Sweet; and goddaughter, Taylor Gleave.

She is also survived by her father- and mother-in-law, George and Patty Martin; brother- and sister-in-law, Steve and Katherine Martin; niece, Kirstyn Martin; nephew, Kyle Martin. And Carol’s three cats: Obie, Cider and Leo.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the “Carol Ann Harrison Memorial Scholarship Fund” at the Humboldt Area Foundation.

Carol’s Celebration of Life will be held at Fieldbrook Winery on Saturday, June 16, 2018 from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Carol Harrison’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.