Carolyn Marie Grisez, 92
Carolyn Marie (Clawson) Grisez, 92, of Kalispell, passed peacefully into Heaven on Feb. 23, 2023, while visiting Lafayette, Indiana.
Carolyn was born Feb. 1, 1931, in Asheville, North Carolina, the only child of J. Ernest and Helen C. (Gillespie) Clawson. Her early childhood years were spent in various locations as her father was a farm manager and teacher, moving from place to place, first to the Clawson family farm in Okeana, Ohio.
She started school in Spartensburg, then Union City and Fortville, Indiana, before living on a Michigan farm. She was involved in 4-H. Back to Indiana for junior high in Bunker Hill, Clymers and finally Logansport, where she graduated from high school in 1949.
She attended Indiana Girls State. Her freshman year of college was spent at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, transferring then to St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Chicago for three years including summer sessions, graduating as a Registered Nurse in 1953. Many lifetime friends were made during those years.
That October she married her high school sweetheart, Arthur S. Grisez. They made their first home in West Lafayette where Art started on the Purdue University Police Department. After their first child, Karen Sue, was born in 1955, they moved to Lafayette where they raised their family. Karen was joined by brothers Arthur David in 1956 and Timothy James in 1958.
Carolyn worked part-time in nursing while volunteering in various capacities – Girl Scout leader and camp nurse for Karen’s scouting activities, room mother and PTA volunteer, and active member of the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Husband Art’s activities of rebuilding and flying airplanes and scuba diving instruction with a dive shop in the basement kept the whole family busy.
Summer vacations were spent near Kalispell at Art’s parents’ cabin on Swan Lake until Carolyn and Art eventually built their own cabin at the other end of the lake. This cabin was enjoyed by four generations with card and board games, swimming, boating, fishing, hiking, rock skipping and campfires.
Carolyn moved up the ranks in her nursing career at Home and St. Elizabeth Hospitals in Lafayette, eventually taking on the role of a supervisor in nursing service administration. She declined an offer to become director of nurses at “St E” so that she and Art could move to Kalispell in 1979. Now a full-time nurse at Kalispell Regional Hospital, she worked more in patient care, most notably the newly established back rehab and education program designed primarily for the logging industry.
Retiring after 44 years of nursing in 1997, she had formed a wide circle of influence among her colleagues, patients, and those she helped train and mentor in nursing. She then moved on to volunteer work as an active member of Northridge Lutheran Church, a literacy volunteer, as well as volunteering at the Flathead Food Bank and Touch of Grace Clinic.
Carolyn is survived by her children, Karen Zanol (Tim) of Wenatchee, Washington; Art Grisez of Lafayette, Indiana; and Tim Grisez of Kingston, Washington; three grandchildren; five great-grandsons and brother-in-law David N. Grisez (Sharon) of Logansport, Indiana.
She was preceded in death by her husband Art after only seven months apart, parents, many aunts, uncles and cousins.
A celebration of life will be held on April 21, 2023, at 1 p.m. at Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home, 525 Main St, Kalispell.
Condolences may be shared at www.jgfuneralhome.com.