Mom was born on June 19, 1930, in Ketchikan, Alaska, to Clara and Emery Tobin. While her parents devoted long hours to launching The Alaska Sportsman magazine, her Aunt Florence became an important part of her upbringing, providing love, encouragement, and a lifelong example of adventure and independence. Mom often credited Aunt Florence with inspiring her love of travel and new experiences.

Adventure came naturally to her. She earned her pilot’s license at sixteen and spent winters climbing Deer Mountain carrying her skis before skiing back down. She loved Alaska and the frontier spirit that encouraged exploration and self-reliance.

Mom excelled in school and graduated as salutatorian of the Ketchikan High School Class of 1948. She enrolled at the University of Minnesota to study journalism, but after about a year she fell in love with our dad, Gordon Bordine, who had been hired as a pressman at her parents’ print shop, and returned to Ketchikan. She was baptized at University Lutheran Church in Minneapolis in 1949. They were married on August 31, 1951.

Carol Laurie was born on Dad’s birthday, August 26, 1952. Soon afterward, Dad decided to attend college and eventually seminary. The family moved first to Decorah, Iowa, where Norman Keith (May 6, 1954) and Janet Lynn (August 23, 1955) were born. While Dad returned to Alaska during the summers to earn money at the family printshop, Mom stayed in the sweltering Iowa heat caring for three young children. Although she missed Alaska’s cool summers, she formed lifelong friendships within the Luther College married student housing community. They later moved to Minneapolis while Dad attended Luther Seminary before accepting pastoral calls in Remer and, seven years later, Moose Lake, Minnesota.

While in Remer, Mom helped establish a Bookmobile program for the community. In Moose Lake, Mom returned to college and graduated from the University of Minnesota Duluth in

1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Home Economics. One requirement amused her. Although she had successfully managed her own household for more than fifteen years, every Home Economics student still had to spend a quarter living in a practice house. She petitioned the department to waive the requirement but was denied. So she dutifully moved into the house while the rest of us managed at home. Shortly afterward, the university changed its policy and exempted married students.

Following graduation, she taught Home Economics in Askov, Minnesota, for a year before accepting a position at Moose Lake State Hospital, where she taught practical life skills to patients preparing to return to independent living.

After all of us children had graduated, Dad accepted a call to Soldotna, Alaska. Mom was thrilled to return to the state she loved most.

On July 10, 1977, Dad, who had also earned his pilot’s license, took Mom, Carol, and Carol’s husband at the time, John, on a short flight. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed. Dad and Carol suffered severe injuries, John was killed, and Mom remained in a coma for several days. She lived with the effects of her injuries for the rest of her life and always believed the prayers of family and friends helped bring her back.

After the accident, Dad decided to leave the ministry and return to his first love—printing. Together they purchased Eagle River Printing Company. Mom managed the front office, enjoyed getting to know customers, and faithfully kept the books before eventually selling the business to Janet and her husband, Doug.

Retirement brought another unexpected adventure when Dad was asked to serve as interim pastor in Shishmaref, Alaska, and later Nome. They immersed themselves in the communities, treasured the friendships they made, and always considered it one of the great adventures of their lives.

After their service there and just days before they were to leave on Mom’s lifelong retirement dream—a year-long journey through Europe and beyond—Dad suffered a fatal heart attack on September 30, 1998. Shortly after his death, at age 68, Mom decided to fulfill part of that dream by traveling alone through Europe for four months. It was an extraordinary adventure and helped bring the number of countries she visited during her lifetime to twenty-five. She also traveled to nearly every U.S. state.

Eventually, she moved to Vancouver, Washington, to be closer to Norm and Carol. She thoughtfully chose her own senior living community and, later, decided on her own when it was time to stop driving, making those transitions easier for all of us. Norm visited often and was always there to help until he and his wife, Tracey, died several years later. Mom treasured more than ten years at Glenwood Senior Living, where she formed many close friendships. Although she later moved to Bridgewood assisted living when future Medicaid eligibility became a consideration, she always missed the friends she had made at Glenwood.

Mom quietly devoted countless hours to serving others. Whether volunteering at the Special Olympics World Winter Games in Alaska, serving with Rotary, libraries, elections, senior organizations, or her churches, she believed that giving back was simply part of living well. She was especially proud when people told her they enjoyed hearing her read the Scriptures because she did it with such feeling, joy, and expression.

She was also the proud author of A Flip of a Coin, inspired by her grandfather’s search for gold during the Alaska Gold Rush.

Mom loved sharing family stories, telling knock-knock jokes, and displaying the wonderful sense of humor she inherited from her dad. Later in life, she wondered what purpose she still had. She decided it was simply this: to make at least one person smile every day. We think she accomplished that goal almost every day.

She was equally interested in the lives of others, asking thoughtful questions because she genuinely wanted to know their stories.

One story she recently shared reflected the values that guided her throughout her life. As a young girl, her mother encouraged her to apply to join the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, an organization for daughters of Master Masons. Mom and her Alaska Native friend both completed the application process. Mom was accepted, but her friend was not. Believing her friend had been excluded because of her Native background, Mom declined the invitation to join.

That same sense of justice guided both the small and significant decisions she made throughout her life—as a mother, pastor’s wife, teacher, friend, colleague, volunteer, and citizen. She often served as a moral compass for our family through her unwavering commitment to fairness, integrity, compassion, and doing what she believed was right.

Those are the qualities we will remember most, and the legacy we hope to carry forward. And now we sign off as she did on all her correspondence…

Celebrating God’s Grace,

Carol and Janet

Cstolz74@comcast.net

lenorequilter@ gmail.com