Remembrances

The way we are living, timorous or bold, will have been our life. —Seamus Heany

Carole Ruth Beal was born on August 24, 1954 in La Jolla, California. She attended John Muir College at UC San Diego, studying art history and psychology. It was there, in the dorms on Torrey Pines Road, that Carole met her future husband. Carole was a little older and a lot wiser than Paul, as she proved to be throughout their nearly fifty years together. They married in 1979 high above the Pacific, on the rooftop of their dorm; and then, Carole went off to Stanford University to study developmental psychology. She earned her PhD in 1983. She became an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Dartmouth College, while Paul joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts. Carole’s parents, who escaped hard lives in Maine and found their dreams in San Diego, feigned horror that Carole moved back East to live in tiny Putney, Vermont, driving up and down Route 95 in all weather. Eventually the University of Massachusetts implemented the “Beal Deal” and appointed Carole as an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. Shortly after joining UMass, Carole’s book “Boys and Girls: The development of gender roles” was published by McGraw Hill.

Allegra was born in 1995. With all Carole’s good qualities and few of Paul’s bad ones, Allegra has been our greatest joy and a marvel to all who know her.

Carole was a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellow (1988) and a Fellow of the American Psychological Society (1998). She served as Associate Editor and editorial board member of the Journal of Educational Psychology; Director of the K12@USC Project and Research Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Southern California; Director and Professor in the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Arizona; Professor in the School of Information at the University of Arizona; and Pre-Eminent Professor and Director of the Online Learning Institute at the University of Florida. She wrote many influential articles with a remarkably diverse collection of coauthors.

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It’s 2003, twenty years after graduation; time for a change. The family moves back to Southern California. Carole and Paul join the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute. When an old friend calls to recommend Paul, the director says, “Hell, Paul’s fine, but I’m really excited about hiring Carole.” Carole was at the forefront of educational technology and was one of the rare technologists who had the skills to not only build systems but field them and test them as a psychologist in proper experiments. At ISI, Carole developed the landmark AnimalWatch system for teaching pre-algebra. Why pre-algebra? Because success or failure there is so consequential. Carole picked problems that matter. She continued the work when she moved to the University of Arizona, designing systems to teach mathematics to visually impaired students. In 2013, the School of Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville appointed Carole as a Pre-Eminent Professor. She won more than $10M in grants from the Institute of Education Sciences to extend her work, and built a research team that continued the work after she retired.

In retirement, Carole started a longitudinal study of children’s drawings, focusing particularly on Allegra’s drawings. Her training in art history and cognitive science combined in a thoroughly cognitive analysis of some glorious art.

Carole retired because she had Parkinson’s Disease. She didn’t want to; she loved research and teaching. Throughout her career she was a deeply caring, inspiring mentor and a beloved colleague. By wrapping her fierce intellect in grace and kindness, she made everyone feel good about themselves. We all wanted to be more like her.

Carole believed that a person lives on in the memories of others. Please remember her well.

-- Paul Cohen and Allegra Beal Cohen.

David Arnold, Professor

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Carole taught me in an undergraduate seminar at Dartmouth -- I was completely clueless and directionless, and she took me under her wing. She quite literally showed me what research was, and walked me through applying to graduate school. Carole gave me countless hours at no benefit to herself, and her kindness and wisdom changed my life -- I have no idea what would have become of me without her, but I do know my life would have been far poorer. It was my lucky day when I became colleagues with Carole at UMass, and I couldn't have appreciated or admired her more. The world is less bright without her.

Dawn Dekle

"A lucky graduate student of Carole’s who was even luckier to become her friend and a witness to her 'one wild and precious life' for 3 decades."

My memories and reflections about Carole Beal

A simple hello in 1989 is now a complicated goodbye in 2021… and I would not have it any other way.

1-Carole as a mentor and guide

Carole was my first real mentor and guide. She was an impossibly cool professor at Dartmouth College, where I attended graduate school. I wanted to be just like her, professionally and personally. I never stopped admiring her. Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to her in year 2011:

“I always admire how you are able to learn new things, evolve your research, and navigate new jobs and environments and bounce to new positions, all with such grace and the ability to carve out success. You remain my role model, and I'm still your biggest fan. I still often think to myself, "what would Carole say, how would she handle this situation?" as I think of you as wise, prudent, fair, humane, empathic, caring, professional, mature, measured, just simply the personification of elegance and grace, at every turn, and in everything you do. I've yet to meet anyone else like you. You are special, and I think our roads crossed so I could meet you at an early age in my career and always have you to model myself after. I am so lucky, and so very appreciative that you have given me time over the years, the emails, the letters, the visits, everything. It has meant a lot to me. In ways I may not always have expressed. I just hope you know that. The world is a better place because you are in it, and my world has been enlarged by how much I have learned from you, both directly and indirectly, through observational learning and then I reflect and try to modify my own behavior based on what I've seen you do and how you behave and the words you use to express yourself. I aspire to be more like you. You are one in a billion, for sure!”

Carole was an educator at heart, and believed in developing people, and took the time to maintain authentic friendships. I will always treasure my time with her.

2-Carole as Zen master

There is a Serbian proverb, “Be humble because you are made of earth. Be noble, for you are made of stars.” Carole was earth and stars, and knew instinctively, like a Zen master, how to balance both. She could take a setback, and turn it into something beautiful, like no one I have ever known. Here is one example:

I collect coffee cups from places I have visited. A few years ago, I was in Uruguay, and picked up a Starbucks coffee mug from the local Starbucks. Bringing it back to my workplace, the cleaning lady accidentally dropped it in the sink and damaged it – not beyond use, but it was no longer perfect. At the time, I was angry and upset. I remember telling Carole about this, how I could not just simply replace this coffee mug. But in characteristic Carole fashion, she reminded me that “it is the teacup with the chip in it that has the story – the other teacups are all the same.” The real message is actually much deeper than this – about two decades ago, Carole had surgery, which left her with a jagged scar. I had asked her about this scar, and to my complete surprise, she said she was considering getting a tattoo, to cover the scar, which would incorporate the scar into a beautiful vine with leaves, flowers, maybe a butterfly. I was speechless. Carole was turning what was a medical issue into a new expression of who she was – she was the chipped teacup, the one with the story, the one who would be the most treasured in the teacup collection.

Carole never let me dwell on anything for too long, and gave me tools and skills for managing stressful situations and finding the best in a situation.

3-Carole as young at heart

Carole loved the singer Bob Dylan. Before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, she attended a concert with her husband Paul. After the concert, she wrote to me, telling me how much she enjoyed it. One of her favorite songs by Bob Dylan was “Forever Young,” and these lyrics speak to who Carole truly was:

May your hands always be busy

May your feet always be swift

May you have a strong foundation

When the winds of changes shift

May your heart always be joyful

May your song always be sung

And may you stay

Forever young

Carole will never age for me, she will remain forever young, forever free, timeless. Lao Tzu said, “When the student is ready, the teacher arrives; when the student is truly ready, the teacher disappears.” I am beyond bereaved that she has disappeared, but I also know it means I now must take forward all I learned from her – I must honor all she taught me by continuing to develop my best self, to show up, and stand tall, in gratitude, for having known such an infinitely wise, beautiful, fun, disarming, captivating, alive person. They say you should not accept criticism from people you would not go to for advice. How I wish I could have just one more piece of advice from her, and 1,000 more criticisms, as she would be correct in all of them! It is now time to take more risks and get busy living.

Carole ran with the wolves, and now she has walked beyond the rainbow, and I wish her journey mercies, pura vida, to rest in peace and power, om shanti, fair winds and following seas, forever young, with a howl in her heart...

In loving memory and humility,

Dawn Dekle

Lynne Oland, PhD.

Research Professor Emerita

Department of Neuroscience

University of Arizona

We have lost a wonderfully generous, funny, dedicated, kind, hugely smart woman. I was privileged to meet Carole at the U of A in the process of putting together the undergraduate program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. She was the representative from the Cognitive Science group in this effort and I was utterly grateful for her counsel, which was never angry about perceived imbalances between neuroscience and cognitive science but instead engaging in enhancing both aspects in ways that would complement each other and bring greater understanding for our students.

Over that time a friendship developed, along with a plan to teach a course together, a general education course aimed at first-year students. We wanted it to be a course that would use neuroscience and cognitive science perspectives to teach these students about topics that would be entirely relevant to their own experience, with an underlying desire to help them learn to navigate college successfully. Many were first-generation students, many hailed from poor rural areas, and a considerable fraction of them were literally afraid of science, never mind woefully unprepared. Carole and I mused extensively on how to engage them so that they could leave our course knowing a bit more about some science but also being willing to include science in decisions they made along the way. What, for example, does the research say about effective learning strategies? Or, given that they were all of reproductive age, how does the brain develop in utero and in early childhood, how do we support optimal brain development and what are those critical periods about? Or, because our students were adolescents, we decided to discuss the changes that occur in the adolescent brain as well as common problems in that period, like depression and addiction. We pushed them hard, but also offered a great deal of support. Carole and I had so much fun developing this course, and teaching it! Along the way, we discovered that we both liked Irish coffee and so occasionally went off to a coffee shop on University Blvd to celebrate course milestones, to work through some problem, and sometimes just to talk.

When Carole left to go to Florida, I was glad for the opportunity she hoped to find there, but utterly saddened to lose her. Each time I stepped into the classroom without her or had to change a lesson because I could not do the topic with the elan that Carole did, I missed her. I still do.

Penny Rosenblum

Director of Research

American Foundation for the Blind

From 2010-2019 I did work on the AnimalWatch Vi projects. The person behind these was Dr. Carole Beal who Jane Newton Erin and I met in a very round about way. Carole was a mentor, friend, and "boss" (Though as Jane likes to say I don't do well being bossed. I tend to boss the bosses!). Carole had a long and challenging battle with Parkinson's. It was heartbreaking to see her decline and know she was not using her intellect the way she wanted to, that is doing great things for people. Though she came to the VI world late in her career, she loved our kids, TVIs, and our AnimalWatch Vi teams. Her time on this earth ended yesterday, but her legacy lives on in so many ways. Her husband and daughter have put together a lovely website. On it you'll find a link to donate to APH in Carole's honor if you are so inclined. My heart has been heavy since Monday when her husband reached out to tell me the end was near. I take comfort that their daughter was able to get home on Tuesday and be there to say goodbye, that she is no longer in pain, and that I had the opportunity to spend time both personally and professionally with a truly amazing lady. I went through photos this morning looking for ones of Carole. I've posted a few. The two group photos are from meetings we had at a lovely B&B in Phoenix. The one with water behind us is from AER in 2016. The one with Tina Herzberg and her son Robert with us is before we had an AMAZING meal in New Orleans at GITWL in 2017. My favorite, thought you don't see Carole well, is where the student is working on our app and Carole, as always, is taking field notes on her computer. The photo of me, Carole, and Jane was the last time I saw her in Feb. 2020. It meant a lot that she spent time with me and Jane when her health was not good. We laughed and talked a lot that afternoon.

Lynn Storm

Carole's cousin

British Columbia

Growing up, we spent lots of time together and were close friends. Our families got together for lots of holidays and vacations. We kids lived at the beach, playing in the surf like otters. We had Christmases together, and many a New Years Eve would find us rolling our eyes at our parents' antics as they partied and danced the night away. One time we went camping in the mountains, but there was snow and it was so cold, the parents folded up the tents and we abandoned the adventure.

Many of my best memories of Carole are from those years, when she was like the older sister leading the way for the rest of us through the stages of growing up. She was patient with the youngest ones (my brother, Bob, and Alison), and made up games and activities that we could all do together in spite of our disparity in ages. Those were the days when kids were left to play and entertain themselves and we had a lot of fun.

Carole had a wicked sense of humor. You wouldn't expect it from her sweet demeanor, but she could give Dorothy Parker a run for her money. Other times it was more like Erma Bombeck. Her witty and entertaining commentary about people and events was unique to her, only Carole would think to describe things like that. That said, she was always kind in her actions towards others. She was unfailingly supportive of the rest of us through our growing pains, and showed great empathy in her dealings with people in general.

The physicists tell us that there is no such thing as linear time and probably everything is happening all at once. I like to think that somewhere we are all playing together on the beach, and somewhere else we are river rafting together at Lake Tahoe and you are there, Paul.

Ruth Sattelberg

Carole's aunt

British Columbia

Dr. Carole Ruth Beal was my niece. She was the oldest of my brother's three girls. I will miss her. I do miss her.

Carole's interest in art appeared at an early age. She and her mother were visiting me while they waited for her father to come from Alaska. She was about two years old. We were in a very small cottage and Carole's crib was against a wall. Her mother had put her down for her nap. Very quiet. Too quiet. We went to check on her and found a happy little girl holding on to the top rail of the crib with one hand and decorating the wall with a red lipstick she had found on the bedside table. She drew a lot of pictures. I did not take a photo to compare this early work to her later efforts.

Carole was Carole Ruthie as a child. Watching her grow and change was interesting, as it was to watch her sisters and my two kids grow up. CR was the oldest and she was a hard act to follow. She played the flute, excelled in school, especially in math. She had boyfriends and a little heartache along the way that ended when she met Paul.

She came from a kind family and from reading the other tributes to her I can tell that trait was strong in her. She helped people along the way. In my opinion that was as important as the programs she developed.

Southern California was a wonderful place to grow up in the 1960's and 70's. We often got our families together and had great discussions around the dinner table, children included. Her father was a Scientist; an Oceanographer working for the Navy specializing in the Arctic. He was a very wise man. I remember one evening when he said, "We are living in the best times mankind has ever had and will ever have." Right on, Big Brother. Lynne's tribute to her cousin tells how is was for the kids.

Carole stayed close to her sisters and parents even when they lived on opposite sides of the continent. When her mother got cancer and was living alone in San Diego, CR supported her in every way. She would come for each medical appointment and made sure there was always someone with Phyllis. I was living in the same condo complex as Phyllis and got reacquainted with the "girls" during that time. They had grown into beautiful, successful and considerate adults.

Carole had years of illness and pain and for her, I am glad that is over. For those of us she left behind when she slipped from that body and went to the next wherever, we will miss her terribly. I miss her.

– Carole's Aunt Ruthie