Caroline Fuller West

Mary "Caroline" Fuller (Reed) West--daughter, Catholic, wife, mother, friend, conversationalist, landlady, manager, godmother, world traveler, and Granny, died peacefully in San Diego, California on May 20, 2015 at the age of 77. Her car license plate read QUIDNUC, describing her as an inquisitive person.

Caroline was born on July 1, 1937 in Fayetteville, North Carolina to Mary Kincaid Fuller and Thomas Fuller. During the second World War while her father fought for the U.S. Army she spent several years in her mother's hometown of Gainesville, Florida. After the war she was raised in Washington, DC and graduated from Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in 1955. She attended The University of Florida where she met and in 1957 married David S. Reed, an electrical engineer student. They moved to Southern California in 1959 and raised their four children in Canoga Park, Northridge and then in Thousand Oaks, California. She graduated from California State University, Northridge in 1974 with a B.A. in Psychology. Her marriage ended a few years later. In 1976, she started working for State Compensation Insurance Fund as a Claims Adjuster. After her children had graduated high school and were in college, Caroline moved to Bakersfield, California in 1984 where she worked as a Claims Manager. Eventually, she reached the position of District Manager of the Bakersfield office, a position she held until her retirement in 2002. She enjoyed living in Bakersfield for 25 years until she moved to San Diego, California in 2011 due to early dementia from a head injury suffered years earlier.

Caroline was a "soccer Mom" before the term was invented-- driving her children to their activities, encouraging their hobbies and interests, volunteering in PTA and school site council, and chaperoning her sons' Little League baseball teams and managing her daughters' Bobby Sox softball teams.

Caroline was an active member of every community she lived in having been a suicide prevention counselor for Hotline and Interface Volunteer Counseling Service in Thousand Oaks. She also taught CCD at Our Lady of Lourdes in Northridge, St. Paschal Baylon in Thousand Oaks and was an RCIA leader at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Bakersfield. She was a member of American Association of University Women, Gleaners, Soroptomists, and Friendship Force of Bakersfield where she also served as Co-President. She enjoyed working at the Kern County Fair every year in the Lost Children booth.

She never missed a chance to meet a stranger and started chatting with people everywhere she went and their stories became part of her conversationalist repertoire. For most of her adult life, she rented out rooms in her home for extra income but mostly for the companionship, becoming life-long friends with many of her boarders.

In 1998, while traveling in Australia with Friendship Force she met Australian John H. West on a train to Adelaide. They shared the same birthday although as John likes to point out, Caroline was a few years older. They were married in 2001 in Australia and in Bakersfield. They spent the next 10 years traveling the world together. Caroline traveled to all 50 U.S. States and about 50 countries and territories in the world.

Some of Caroline's best memories were as a teenager when she worked in the summer as a congressional intern and another summer working in Yellowstone National Park, as well as marrying her two husbands, raising her children, and traveling the world. Caroline loved seeing her relatives and friends throughout the world. If you were anywhere close to where she was visiting she wanted to see you and have a visit.

Caroline is survived by her husband John Henry West of Mornington, Victoria, Australia; children Michael Reed and his wife Mary of San Diego and their children Benjamin Sullivan and Emma Reed; Thomas Reed of San Bruno, California; Eugenie Cormode and her husband Scott of Glendora, California and their children Elizabeth and Donley Cormode; and Susan Reed of Seattle, Washington.

On June 6th at 10:00am, there will be a graveside service at Evergreen Cemetery in Gainesville, Florida. A luncheon will follow for all attendees.

On July 18th at 2:00pm, there will be a Memorial Mass and reception in Bakersfield at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church with a reception following. John will join us for this celebration of Mom’s life.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be given at www.FriendshipForce.org or www.StPhilipChurch.org.