Martha S. Carrell

There are no survivors except the extraordinary wealth of friends across the country. She befriended everyone from the valet parker to the famous.

She was born Sept. 12, 1942, in Honolulu: her father was Christy L. Carrell and her mother was Marian Guerrero Frank Carrell. Martha was a graduate of Roosevelt High School and held a BA and MA from the University of Hawaii. Although she never lost touch with her roots, Martha was a citizen of the world, traveling widely with her late husband, Robert E.L. Tolbert, and living in many places across the United States—New York, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Houston and Los Angeles—before retiring in Henderson.

Her resume is wonderfully eclectic. She was a featured hula dancer, touring with a professional company that performed in Hawaii, New York and Europe. Anyone who was lucky enough to see her dance, even in her later years, could not help but be moved by her graceful and elegant dances.

But her major career was in communications of all kinds. Her University of Hawaii BA degree was in Speech and her MA degree was in Speech Communications. She held positions as a director, producer, program development director, training coordinator, literary agent, grant administrator, and in public relations over her long career. She worked for many public broadcasting channels across the United States, and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. She was especially proud of a PBS documentary she produced about Hawaii in the 1970s. She was never happy with the ending, so she performed the final scene, as a hula dancer in silhouette against the setting Hawaiian sun, herself.

She was a teacher and coach of debate, and of speech communication skills, both in high schools and universities.

Her volunteer activities covered the gamut--from teaching decision-making skills to inmates in the Delaware County (PA) prison system to mediating disputes for non-profit organizations in Los Angeles.

In her retirement years, her passion was the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), a program at more than 120 universities across the country for adults who want to continue learning through non-credit courses.

Martha’s UNLV classes were a forum to explore new ideas in science, technology, philosophy--anything fascinating and stimulating. She challenged her students to explore those ideas in open discussion, skillfully controlling the conversation without being controlling.

Her forums were one of OLLI-UNLV’s most popular offerings. Her students were devoted to her, developing a large core group that took every class she moderated.

She spent countless hours researching class topics. Her late husband supported her passion by providing the technical support needed to produce her classes. She also served on the OLLI board.

Martha loved playing all kinds of games, especially word and number games, and was a fierce competitor. She and her husband loved to gamble, and on Kentucky Derby Day one could find them at the local sports book early in the day, handicapping and studying the horses. At one point, they were part of a group that purchased a racehorse. She loved the penny slots. She belonged to many book clubs. She was a woman of wide-ranging interests.

She will be interred in Hawaii at Punchbowl National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific with her beloved husband.