Promoting Harmony
“If we know people personally, we are much less apt to go to war with them.”
– Carol Brickley ’64
Hometown: Pella, Iowa
Major: Sociology
Minor: Music Education
Student Activities: A Cappella Choir
Special Accomplishments: Founded the Rolla [Missouri] Chamber Singers and Patriot Singers and the Pops and Pasta Fundraising event with The Greeley [Colorado] Chorale.
Community Service: Community theatre participant; church youth director, board member and choir member; member, Partners of the Americas; volunteer, Habitat for Humanity Nicaragua
Career: Primary school teacher in Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri and Colorado; sales representative, Evan-Moor Educational Publishers
Current Location: Greeley, Colorado
Carol Brickley ’64 was born in a house on Franklin Street in Pella, the granddaughter of Dutch immigrants. Her father sang Dutch psalms. Her mother was a church organist. Carol sang her first solo at age 3 in a church Sunday school program and hasn’t stopped since.
At Central, she studied voice under Edith Sedrel LeCocq; sang in the A Cappella Choir, directed by former Professor of Music Larry Grooters, and performed in “Knickerbocker Holiday,” the homecoming musical during her first year on campus.
“I’m really grateful to the A Capella Choir, because it introduced me to choral music,” Brickley says. Since then, she’s sung in and founded music groups wherever she’s lived.
She also credits the college with her now lifelong interest in travel and culture. “Professor Laura Nanes taught theology and opened my mind to other cultures. I didn’t study abroad, but I did get to go to New York City with the A Capella Choir. To me that was like going to a foreign country! My traveling companion was Rosario Woo ’64 from Hong Kong.”
Brickley has continued to combine music and travel. “Once every four years, the Greeley Chorale takes an ambassador trip abroad. We’ve been to Rome, Prague and Ireland. It is a great privilege to travel, and for me that started at Central,” she says.
Travel for her is motivated by peace. “If we know people personally, we are much less apt to go to war with them,” she says.
“I am so proud of the way Central has embraced diversity and environmental awareness while still maintaining its high academic standards,” Brickley says. “Reading stories in Civitas about outstanding alumni such as Carol Mendez ’09 reminds us that if people are given a chance, they’ll make the most of it and do great things.”
To help others afford the chance to come to Central, she contributes to the Journey Scholarship Fund. She also supports the music department in gratitude for her formative connections to music and the world.