Adams, Carol

ADAMS (NELSON), Carol Jane

Born in 1951 and passed away on Nov 27 2020, Carol lived a full life with her husband Tarpley and sons Bennett and Alex. Carol enjoyed birding, dog sports, math puzzles, horseback riding, travel, and teaching math. Carol grew up in Jackson, Mississippi and graduated high school in Roswell, Georgia. Educated at the University of Georgia (BA/MA Mathematics) and Indiana University (MBA Operations Research), she joined Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey working on early video conferencing. There she met her husband in what they both knew was a magical moment. She is published in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics.

Careers took Carol and Tarpley to southern New Hampshire (Boston without the taxes), where they married and the sons were born. Lifelong friends were made. There were many trips to Acadia National Park and points north. The family moved to the Atlanta area in 1990, to a great neighborhood of like moms, dads, and kids.

Carol raised the sons with love as a second career, and then began her true calling teaching mathematics at Mill Springs Academy in Milton, Georgia. She made many great friends and memories there, and loved helping change the lives of her students. She loved chaperoning yearly trips to an equestrian ranch in Arizona, and field trips to Costa Rica and the San Juan Islands near Seattle. As a sponsor of the Mill Springs Native American Club, she traveled to and helped build a relationship with the students of Little Wound High School on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Lakota tribe.

Carol and the family enjoyed traveling to Alaska, Hawaii, Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, Ontario, England, France, Jamaica, and the western states in search of scenery, adventure, and birds. In Carol's last 10 years she competed with her dogs in canine agility sports and scent work, regionally and successfully.

Carol is preceded in death by her mother Mary Jane (Bennett) Nelson and father Charles Alexander Nelson. Her brother Charles Alexander Nelson Jr passed away in 2019. Carol is survived by her husband Samuel Tarpley Adams III of the home, sons Alexander Tarpley Adams and Samuel Bennett Adams.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Cape May Bird Observatory, part of New Jersey Audubon.

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