Lasting Memories

Carolyn Clothier Killefer
June 20, 1922-Nov. 19, 2017
San Francisco, California

Carolyn Clothier Killefer died peacefully on Nov. 19 at her home in San Francisco. She was born in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on June 20, 1922, to William Jackson Clothier and Anita Porter Clothier. She attended Shipley School, Mills College and the University of Pennsylvania, from which she received a BA.

During the Second World War she served in the U.S. Marines. After the war, she studied at the University of Geneva on the GI bill. In 1948, she married her great love, Tom Killefer, and together they lived happily in San Francisco; Bad Homburg, Germany; Washington, D.C.; Detroit; Chatham, Massachusetts; New York City; and then back to the Bay Area, where Carolyn spent the last 35 years of her life. Tom died in 1996 in Portola Valley.

Carolyn was a very active leader in her communities; she embraced the environmental movement in the ’60s, co-founded Concern, Inc. in Detroit, served on the Boards of Planned Parenthood in NYC and the San Francisco Botanical Garden, volunteered with the American Field Service for many years and, when on the Mills College Board of Trustees, lobbied strongly to keep the college women only, which it did.

She was a fierce and committed tennis player from age 6 well into her 70s. Opponents quickly learned to fear her serve and not attempt a shot down her alley.

Carolyn is survived by her four children, Wade, Caroline, Gail and Onnie; daughter-in-law Barbara Flammang, sons-in-law Jack Thayer and Jeff Hall; grandchildren Ashley, Annie, Alexandra and Joe; grandchildren-in-law Aaron Feaver, Balint Seeber, and Jen Killefer, and great granddaughter Hildy Feaver. They all thank her for her uncompromising love and affirmation of life.

Her family gives special thanks to her caregivers who lovingly eased her through the last several years.