Carol Ganzel passed away on October 27, 2019. Carol was an active ACLU leader since the early 1970s, when she joined the board of the ACLU in Oberlin. A few years later, she joined the state board of directors as a chapter representative, and continued to serve until early 2002. In addition to serving as a chapter representative and later as an at-large board member, she also acted as an officer of the board in the role of secretary, and participated on the executive committee.
Through her decades-long stewardship as a board member, Carol guided and supported the organization through near-bankruptcy to financial health. At the time she left the board, the ACLU of Ohio Foundation had built a solid endowment, and had purchased a building. She also participated in efforts to strengthen the ACLU’s education and litigation programs.
Carol believed that civic responsibility based on knowledge of the Constitution is the most important value we can instill in generations to come. She held a special commitment to the First Amendment. Carol once said, “First Amendment provisions – especially freedom of speech – trump all others. Freedom of speech is basic in that all other liberties are meaningless without it, and I don’t think it should ever be encroached upon, even for perceived social good.”
Carol was awarded the ACLU’s Liberty's Flame award in 2002.
Carol retired from Oberlin College in 1995, where she had been editor of the staff newspaper since 1981. She also worked as a copy editor at the University of Chicago Press and taught English composition at a Kent State University extension. She served on the city of Oberlin’s Historic Preservation Commission, and as its vice-chair.
Her hobbies included roller coasters, bird-watching, theater, reading and swimming.
Carol was preceded in death by her husband Dewey Ganzel.
Donations in Carol's memory may be made to the ACLU of Ohio Foundation.
An obituary was included in the Chronicle-Telegram:
https://chroniclet.com/news/176733/carol-henderson-ganzel/
