Carolyn E.B. Duffy

Hinesburg, VT, died January 3, 2024, of cancer. A Professor Emeritus of Applied Linguistics at Saint Michael’s, Carolyn received the Joanne Rathgeb Teaching Award from the College in 1994.

Carolyn grew up on a family farm in Somerset County, PA., with a few years in Texas when her father returned from World War II. In her youth, she played the piano at her family’s church and was valedictorian of her high school class.

At Penn State University, she was the only major in Latin American area studies. There, in the fall of 1962, she met her future husband, Leonard. It was love at first sight. After graduating, she worked in Washington, D.C., until their marriage in 1966, whereupon they set off for Guadalajara, Mexico, and then Florence, Italy, the following spring. She taught high school Spanish for a year in Pennsylvania before the couple moved back to Washington, where she started her own language school for embassy personnel while finishing her master’s in applied linguistics at American University.

Soon after they moved to Hinesburg, VT, as their family grew. Briefly, Carolyn took up weaving and poetry until she was recruited to teach in the English as a Second Language program at Saint Michael’s College. She was director of the English Language program and taught and mentored students in the MATESL program until retiring in 2015. She was proud to have received an award for excellence in teaching in 1994.

In 1991, a former student asked her to help start a bilingual school in Bogota, Colombia. Gimnasio Vermont is now considered one of the highest-ranked pre-K to 12 schools in Colombia. At about the same time, she also started a teacher-training program at the Hellenic American Union in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece, where she also taught for a portion of the year for many years while she completed her PhD at Georgetown University. One of her proudest accomplishments was a frequently cited paper she wrote for the U.S. Peace Institute. She also coauthored a TOEFL textbook for English language learners that became a worldwide resource. She will be fondly remembered by hundreds of former students throughout the world.

Carolyn loved her home and farm, her gardens, skiing, her horses, and many dogs and cats, but most of all, she enjoyed time with her grandchildren.  She became a passionate golfer later in life and loved spending time on Lake Champlain and cooking delicious meals, and entertaining.

She is survived by her husband of 57 years, Leonard, a son, daughter Cara Duffy M’96, two sisters, a brother and extended family.