ForeverMissed
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His Life

Living Life to the Fullest

February 2, 2018

While at the University of Minnesota, a fraternity brother set Steve up with Donna, a girl from his hometown of Spring Valley MN. Steve and Donna were married two years later. They later had two children, Chris and Alisa, and three lovely grandchildren.  The whole family remained in the DC area and spent a great deal of time gathering together and talking almost daily.  Steve also felt rewarded by the good relationships with his brothers, Creighton and Robert, and with his nieces and nephews.  

Steve and Donna enjoyed the cultural opportunities that the DC area provided and held season tickets for theater, ballet, and opera, as well as season tickets for Maryland sports for decades.  He was deeply satisfied with how his life and his choices allowed him to read the best works by great authors and poets, see some of the world's greatest works of art, and attend countless plays and operas. In his words, "this has given me a tremendous feeling of satisfaction in not missing the best creations of humankind before me." 

Steve officially retired from U of Maryland in 1998, but stayed connected as Professor Emeritus and continued to write books and give lectures on management and teaching topics, most recently a book on teaching written in collaboration with his daughter and a former PhD student.  He was deeply touched by his rewarding relationships with his incredible colleagues and friends in the U of MD business school and across the whole campus. He was also enriched greatly by his relationships with the PhD students and other brilliant students he mentored over his lifetime. 

In his retirement years he served as a volunteer medical counselor for prostate cancer and Guillaine Barre Syndrome (GBS) paralyzed patients.  He was a survivor of both  illnesses.  

Steve and Donna loved travel and finding the beautiful places in the world that stir the soul. The family traveled most frequently to the coast of Maine, but other favorites of Steve and Donna were Middlebury, Vermont, and many of the incredible national parks in the western US, and western Canada. Steve also loved Japan and spent 6 monhts there as a Fulbright scholar.  Other international travel took them throughout Europe when Chris and Alisa were young children, to Ireland, a very special place holding Steve's family roots, as well as to Australia, Italy, Taiwan, China, and Poland. 


Steve felt he had been lucky in life in every respect, so our reflection of his life should be one of celebration and not of sadness. 

Childhood

February 1, 2018

Below are some excerpts from Dad's memoirs that he wrote up for us.

I was born in Boston at the home of my grandparents that my parents lived with at  time. They  were John Carroll (retired  from  US   Army) and   Elizabeth (former   Cahill) both immigrants from  Roscrea  County,  Tipperary, Ireland.  Grandfather served   7   years   in    British   army   and    28   in   U.S.  Army.   He  is  said  to   have   fought or   served  in   5 wars or  military expeditions including  Spanish-American   War   and  World  WAR  I.

I moved  to Winthrop on the North Shore of  Mass when  I started  2nd grade. I lived in Winthrop until  I was17. At  14 I worked on  a lobster  boat  owned by a  friend  from  Canada  of  my  mother. I  learned much  about  boating then and also learned   to sail on  sailboats  owned by  friends. 

I  was exposed to  the  arts starting   with  visits  to  the  Boston Museum of  fine   Arts  with  my mother (a lifelong artist)  starting   at   age  8. She was affiliated   with   the museum as a student for many  years  during   her life. She also took me often to concerts of   the   Boston  Pops   orchestra  at  their  Charles   River venue. My   father’s sister, Aunt Evelyn, worked  for  Paramount   Pictures  in Boston  all her life. She invited me to many film screenings of   films from her company over the  years and was a very  dynamic and  intelligent woman. At age 15, I  started  to   attend musical  comedies and   plays  during summers in the Copley Square area.  I also started  to  see foreign films from Europe then at an Arts oriented movie house. My  first foreign  film,  The   Bicycle   Thief ,  was  a   revelation  which   started   a  lifelong interest in   artistic films.

I joined   the   Navy   in   Aug.   1947. I   wanted  to get away  from my   parents’ marital conflicts.  In the Navy I  had  very high  test scores and   was given  several opportunities  to  specialize.  I  was  sent to   Radio  School  where  I   learned to  copy  the Morse Code and operate radio  equipment. I was   then  assigned to a  Destroyer,  where  I   spent  3   years as  a   radioman 3rd   class  eventually and travelled on   the   ship  to   Europe several  times  visiting England, France, Italy, Sicily, and also had several  stays in Cuba,  Bermuda, and   various   ports from   Maine   to   New   Orleans.  I  volunteered for  Korea then  but a   few months    later they sent  me  to London for shore   duty. I lived  in   London for a  few months, and   then  was   assigned  to   Londonderry  Northern   Ireland  which   was   affiliated with   the   Radio  facilities  in  London. I  stayed in   Londonderry for more  than  2  years and    ended   up as   Radioman   first   class,   assistant chief in  charge  of  the   radio   facility  there, chief  master of   arms, and  captain  of   the  mess. I  had a   wonderful stay   there .From   there  I   took a   train   periodically  to   Dublin  and  then  on   to   Tipperary    where  I   visited   the  various  farms  my   Carroll   and   Cahill    families   owned. 

My  two brothers are Creighton (2  years younger),   and  Robert (5 years   younger).  After high  school   both took    courses in   math   and   science at night at   colleges.(MIT and   Wentworth   Tech) . Both  then   attended  and   graduated  from   Harvard .

Professor and Scholar

February 1, 2018

Professor Stephen Carroll was born in Boston and served in the U.S. Navy for six years. He earned a BS degree from UCLA and an MA and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. After earning his degrees at  U of Minn, Dr. Carroll was an assistant professor at Villanova before arriving at the University of Maryland in 1964 after a campus visit had been arranged by U of Minn office roomate and close friend Al Nash.  Dr. Carroll was Chair of the Management and Organization Department for several years and served in other important administrative capacities in the Smith School of Business and across campus. He chaired or served on numerous doctoral dissertation committees and received many teaching awards, including being named a Distinguished Scholar/Teacher at the University of Maryland in 1980.

Professor Carroll was the author or coauthor of more than 100 published papers and also fifteen books, as well as three book revisions and two monographs. He was an early pioneer in promoting evidence-based management practices as they relate to various human resource management issues. Many of his earliest papers were focused on the topic of Management by Objectives based on innovative studies at Black and Decker, the Packing Corporation of America, and other organizations. A considerable part of his later work was carried out through field studies and field experiments on managerial mentoring and executive human resource management issues. 

He was an elected Fellow of several scientific organizations, including the Academy of Management, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and the American Psychological Society. He received the prestigious Heneman Award for Lifetime Scholarly Research in Human Resource Management from the Academy of Management Human Resource Management Division in 2010. He was a consultant to more than 30 organizations in business and the US Government such as Black & Decker, McCormick Spice Company, IRS, and USDA,  and he was a visiting scholar in Japan, China, Australia, Italy, Poland. Ireland, and Taiwan.

Memorial donations can be designated for the Stephen J. Carroll, Jr. Scholarship Fund at the University System of Maryland Foundation (USMF), 3300 Metzerott Road, Adelphi, MD 20783