Carol Mae (Bierlein) Arnold was born in St. Albans, New York, on May 29th, 1934. She was the second child of Arthur and Victoria (Weidenbusch) Bierlein.

Even though she grew up on “urban” Long Island, Carol loved horses as a child. She rode whenever and wherever she could and made her mother take her to the annual horse shows that were staged at Madison Square Garden.

At the age of 10, a life-long friend invited her to summer camp in upstate New York. The invitation changed her life. It was at ‘Uncle Wynn’s” camp that she found faith. She spent the next 8 summers there, playing softball, learning how to swim, and of course, riding horses. In her later teens, she served as camp counselor. Her time there fostered her lifelong commitment to her Lord and a special place in her heart for summer camps.

After graduating from Andrew Jackson High School in 1951, she attended New York University in lower Manhattan, where she trained to be an Occupational Therapist and received her bachelor’s degree in education in 1957.

Carol had an adventurous spirit. She took numerous bicycle trips throughout New England with the friends that she had made a camp. She always cherished her memories of peddling her way through upstate New York and Pennsylvania Amish country.

After getting her degree from NYU, she completed 3 internships in order to earn her Occupational Therapy certification. Her first internship took her to Buffalo, NY, where she worked at Children’s Hospital. She drove across the country to Los Angeles for the second internship. Her final stint was in Denver at the National Jewish Hospital. It was in Denver that she found her new home.

She bought a Plymouth, filled it with her belongings, and headed west from New York to Denver. She found a roommate, got an apartment in downtown Denver, and settled into a job with Easterseals Colorado, where she helped set up a “homebound therapy” program.

At that time, she began attending the young adults group at a nearby church where she met a gangly boy from Nebraska. Eldon proposed to her on a trip “home” to Trumbull, Nebraska over the thanksgiving holiday in 1960. They were married at Trinity Church on June 10th, 1961. It didn’t take long before Eldon and Carol had established their own home and added Todd Matthew and Leanne Carol to their family.

The family moved to Pueblo, Colorado, in 1967 where Carol got her teacher’s certificate from Southern Colorado State College. She was a teacher and substitute teacher in the public school system into the 1980s.

In 1987, Carol and Eldon embarked on their final stage of “professional” life. After Eldon graduated from Denver Seminary, they moved to Honolulu to serve on the staff of Hawaii Kai Christian Church with their nephew and niece, Ron and Dee Arnold. They also ministered on the big island of Hawaii as the pastors of Waikoloa Community Church. Eldon and Carol returned to Colorado and entered semiretirement in 1996. But their ministry was not yet done. They went to South Korea to teach English to Korean missionary students for two semesters, and they served the seniors ministry at Cherry Hills Community Church until Eldon’s retirement in 2008.

Carol is survived by her son Todd, daughter Leanne, 5 grandchildren - Amanda (husband Michael), Nathan (wife Daffney), Tanner (wife Megan), Jaclyn and Matthew - and 3 great grandchildren - Levi, Elias and Cooper.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that remembrances be made in the form of a donation to Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je. Please find information at https://idrahaje.org.