Carol Darlene Blackman

Carol Darlene Blackman, age 71, passed away unexpectedly, yet peacefully, at home
on Thanksgiving Day doing what she loved, preparing a beautiful Thanksgiving meal. Carol was
a native San Franciscan who graduated from Lowell High School, obtained her B.A. in
Communications from San Francisco State University, and her Masters Degree in Education
from the University of Santa Clara.

Carol had a special love for children and worked on behalf of children for more than 30
years. With a B.A. in communications and a M.A. in educational psychology and the education
of children with learning disabilities, she designed, managed and evaluated innovative special
education programs that became the models for Santa Clara County schools and the State of
California. In 1979, she worked as a volunteer to help launch Friends for Youth and served as
one of the first board members. In 1998, she helped to create, and serve as the first director,
of the Friends for Youth Mentoring Institute.
 

Her life and passions were very diverse and interesting with many success endeavors.
She was an accomplished special education teacher, a journalist with two daily newspapers,
the Peninsula Times Tribune and the San Jose Mercury News, a member of the US Support
Committee for the League of the San Francisco Consular Corps, and the author of five nonfiction
books.
 

She was predeceased by her mother, Annie Grimstad, and her father, Peter Grimstad,
both of whom had emigrated from Norway. She is survived by many wonderful friends some of
whom have known Carol since her preschool days.
 

There will be a Celebration of Life at Dugan’s Mission Chapel, 525 West Napa Street,
Sonoma, California on January 17, 2020 from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. and an interment gathering at her
final resting place, the city of her birth that she loved and wrote about, at the San Francisco
Columbarium, One Loraine Court, San Francisco, on January 29, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. to
12:00 noon. She will be missed by many.

In lieu of flowers it is suggested that contributions be made in Carol’s name to Pets in
Need, https://www.petsinneed.org/donate, Redwood City, California.

In lieu of flowers it is suggested that contributions be made in Carol’s name to Pets in
Need, https://www.petsinneed.org/donate, Redwood City, California.

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