Carol Elaine Haliski

1942-2017

Carol was born to Charles and Ruth Dosica in Staten Island New York at a time when that part of the world still relied on agriculture and closely knit networks consisting of family, fellow church members and coworkers. Carol came to learn the value of community and service during these formative years. When her family moved to Middletown New Jersey in the 1950’s, her family made frequent return trips to Staten Island to share meals of cabbage rolls with her cousins, grandmother, aunts and uncles, many of whom she remained in contact with until her passing. Over time Carol came to adopt the neighboring town of Red Bank, New Jersey as her own.

Carol graduated from Middletown High School, then attended the Katherine Gibbs school. Shortly after she began her career as a secretary with “Ma Bell”, she met and married Richard Haliski, an enlisted man stationed at Fort Monmouth, NJ. They soon married and became parents to four sons, Paul (currently of Brick, NJ), Michael (currently of Portland, OR), David (currently of Locust Valley, NY) and Jason (currently of Augusta, GA).

Settling into family life in New Jersey, Carol temporarily put aside her own career to act as homemaker and full time mother to her four growing boys. Between soccer and baseball games, boy scouts, cooking for six and getting her kids ready for church every Sunday, she found time to give back to those in need. From an early age, Carol chose to act out her faith in service to her community. When not taking care of the needs of her kids, Carol continued to do more for the community and she enlisted her family in visits to the home bound among other charitable work.

The children grew and Carol returned to world of paid work in the mid 1980’s, accepting a role as Office Manager for AT&T. The remainder of her career was spent in various research-based incarnations of the telecom company. During this time, Carol taught her kids to value diversity in all of its forms and she often invited co-workers who hailed from all over the world to Thanksgiving dinner. Her kids shared meals with Iranian, Iraqi, Pakistani and Israeli PhD’s and her enduring relationships with these people were evident when they would send a postcard whenever they had made it back to their far flung homes. The relationships Carol built here lasted the rest of her life and she was happy to visit with her former coworkers over the past year.

With the little free time Carol had, she discovered a love of books and of writing. As a freelancer, she penned a feature article in the late 1980’s for New York’s Village Voice about her trip to the infamous punk-rock club CBGB’s. When a small start up newspaper, The Two River Times, began printing in Red Bank, Carol wrote a weekly column called “Our Town” that shared her love of the community. Her work was so well received they kept her on as a columnist until she moved to Delray Beach, Florida in 1999.

Carol loved the weather, the casual pace of life and her new church community in Florida. Not one to retire gently, Carol participated in her church choir, took a part time job at the Delray Beach Library and participated in her homeowners association as a building representative. Throughout retirement, she came to enjoy visits all around the country with her grandchildren Richie, Alyssa, Kaitlyn, McKenzie and Addison.

Not one to be slowed down even after leaving her library position of 13 years, Carol soon found herself volunteering at the Delray CROS Ministries Food Pantry where she welcomed the needy with compassion and the willingness to listen without judgement. Having had these contacts, and seeing how public policy played out in the lives of the poor, Carol, despite the warm fall weather helped register voters all across south Florida prior to the recent elections. Between all of this, Carol loved spending time with her cat Tigger, collecting books and art, dining out and taking in movies with all of the friends she loved so much.

While Carol loved flowers and often fondly strolled the gardens of Morikami Japanese Gardens, the family feels her memory would be best served by a donation in her name to CROS Ministries, The Delray Beach Public LIbrary or the Multiple Sclerosis Society.