Carol was born in the hard scrabble steel producing town of Youngstown, Ohio. Her parents could have been the poster models for the greatest generation in that they made a great life for her and two sisters without a formal education, but with a lot of hard work.  Because of that, they really encouraged Carol and her two sisters to get as much education as they possibly could.  Her parents set the tone for Carol to excel in her life by overcoming obstacles and always striving to do better.  Carol told us the story of her Mom, while working as a cook in a wealthy household, learned how to make hollandaise sauce for her employer by asking the family how “they liked it to be made.”  She didn’t want the family to know she had no idea how to make it!  She learned how to do it and her mother’s brilliant plan made a huge impression on Carol when she was young.  So much so that when she evaluated a candidate’s credentials for a particular job, she zeroed in on that person’s ability to innovate and be inventive in their approach to the job at hand.

 

Carol’s father got a promotion in his job and the whole family moved to Cleveland, Ohio.  This is where she finished high school, and met her husband of 57 years, Don Damaso.  They did not get married right away because after high school she went on to Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana.  Don stayed in the Cleveland area and eventually joined the U.S. Army and was deployed to Panama.  Carol studied elementary education in her undergraduate studies because she wanted to work with children.  At Saint Mary’s she did work in the campus library to help pay the cost of her education.  She was a natural, and the nuns who ran the school said she should become a librarian which of course she eventually did.  In what really turned out to be a smart move, she decided to get her master’s degree in Library Science right away after graduating from Saint Mary’s with her bachelor’s degree.  She chose the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to finish that graduate degree. 

 

With her college degrees in hand, and in her mid 20’s, Carol moved to the Washington D.C. area in June of 1967.  She wanted to be with Don after he finished his time in the Army, and to start her library career.  Carol and Don got married in 1968, and she would spend next 5 years or so working for the children’s department of library systems in both the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.  What we found fascinating is that she really had the chance to hone her craft of working with children in the library by storytelling without a book in hand, which would help them foster imagination and language skills.  She would follow up using picture books to enhance their comprehension.

 

After Don’s financial planning company started to take off, they decided to settle in McLean, Virginia where they started their family.  She ended up taking 11 years off from her library career while they raised their young family.  During this time, Carol did not sit idly by though, she helped Don with his business as his bookkeeper, and also managed to find some time to volunteer at the local schools as a story teller. 

 

In 1989 Carol, and her family moved to Arizona.  They had family here, and Don had always wanted to retire in a warm climate.  In 1992 Carol decided to come back to her career passion which are libraries.   Luckily for us, she was hired in the Scottsdale Library System, and her first job was at the Scottsdale Mustang Library as its children’s librarian.  In 1997 she was promoted to branch manager of the Mustang Library where she stayed until she replaced Bill Pillow as Scottsdale Senior Manager of Public Services for the library system in 2004.  During this time, Carol and Don moved to Scottsdale from Moon Valley because they absolutely loved our area.  In 2011 she was promoted again to be the Library Director of all the Scottsdale Libraries.  Carol stayed in that job for 3 years and retired in 2014.  She wasn’t quite done yet with the library though.  She was asked to form a committee to raise $500,000 to build the Scottsdale Heritage Connection at the Scottsdale Civic Center Library.  She said yes, and her committee ended up raising the money in 3 years.  It is up and running now of course and this area has proven to be invaluable in the sense that they have digitized and saved a vast amount of Scottsdale’s history for everyone to enjoy.

 

In 2006 Rita Hamilton, who is a graduate of Scottsdale Leadership Class 19, encouraged Carol to go through the program where she joined Class 21 and graduated with her fellow classmates in 2007.  She absolutely loved the program and even though she had worked for the city for 14 years prior to that she told us she was blown away by what she learned about our community.  To our benefit, Carol continued on with our organization by agreeing to serve on our Scottsdale Leadership board and even further as the President of our organization. 

 

We mentioned earlier that Carol was not afraid to take on the tough jobs that no one else seems to want.  It was our former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana who inspired her to keep working to make our community better.  Like every other organization, Scottsdale Leadership needs to raise money.  Well Carol saw that also.  Sensing that need, she just bucked up and learned how to do it.  As with the Scottsdale Heritage Connection, she went out in the community to promote Scottsdale Leadership and raise money for our programs.  That spirit has made her an invaluable part of our program for many years. After she finished her term as President of the board, she joined the Scottsdale Leadership Advisory Council and has stayed on with that group ever since.  She also has mentored many board members on how to be more effective. 

 

Carol and Don are still very active in their own chosen areas of interest.  Don has been the President of their Home Owners Association for the past 9 years and Carol has focused her energy on Scottsdale Leadership and the Friends of the Scottsdale Public Library Board.  They also love to hang out with their 3 very successful adult children, Karen, Mike and John and their 3 grandchildren. 

 

 

Even though Carol is retired, she is one those people who still has a lot of energy in the tank in terms of her ability to give back to Scottsdale.  We just smiled as we realized that she has enjoyed a wonderful, fulfilling career and has helped to raise a great family.  When people ask her, what is their secret to this wonderful long marriage, Carol tells them that she and Don create a lot of things they can look forward to every day, including a family happy hour every day at 5 pm where they can relax and enjoy a drink together and catch up on the day’s activities.  That sure sounds good to us, and is a great way to keep a fresh perspective on things.  We are confident that Carol has many more years of serving Scottsdale, and for that we all should be very grateful.