Carolyn Schoen Eisenberg

Carolyn Schoen Eisenberg was born on August 9, 1933 in Yonkers, New York to Ceil (Wolf) and Jacob Schoen. After the death of her father when she was nine, her family moved to Brooklyn, to be close to her maternal grandmother and extended family in Brooklyn. Among her fondest memories were summers in New Jersey with her sister, Arlene, and brother, Mel, and multiple generations of the Wolf family. Throughout her life, she always prized family connections and prioritized attending the annual “Cousins Club,” where her daughters developed strong ties to scores of aunts, uncles and cousins.

Carolyn was always an avid reader and an outstanding student, graduating from Tilden High School and Brooklyn College at the top of her class. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa as a junior at Brooklyn College, where she earned a degree in elementary education. During college, she met Meyer (“Mike”) Eisenberg, when he was encouraged to take an education class and found a seat next to the smartest and prettiest woman in the room. Meyer and Carolyn were soon engaged and married, just before his deployment, on December 26, 1954; they would have celebrated their 70th anniversary this December.

After teaching for several years, first in New York and then, for a year, in Salem, Oregon (!), Meyer and Carolyn moved to the Washington, DC area, where Mike began his career at the Securities and Exchange Commission. After focusing on raising their daughters, Julie and Ellen, for several years, Carolyn returned to school, earning a master’s degree from the University of Maryland. She served for several decades as a reading specialist in Montgomery County Public Schools, working part time while being an involved parent and active in the community. In the mid-1980s, she received training in Berkeley, California, and became a leader in crafting new methods for teaching reading and writing that enriched the lives of generations of children.

Carolyn and Meyer lived in the D.C. metro area from 1959 to 2020. During this time they lived a life full of culture, travel, and deep and meaningful friendships. They were founding members of Congregation Har Shalom and among the original neighbors on Lakenheath Way in Potomac, Maryland. Many friends enjoyed their annual Rosh Hashanah open house (for which Carolyn baked hello dollies and lemon bars for weeks), and frequent dinners out. They travelled the world—and especially enjoyed repeat visits to France.

Carolyn loved and doted on her three grandchildren, Alex, Ben, and Sam, sometimes traveling cross country to take care of the kids for extended periods. In 2008, they established a second home in Salem where they spent several months a year, and built new friendships. Carolyn was a devoted volunteer at Heritage School for years, even after Alex and Ben were no longer students there. Both in Maryland and in Salem, Carolyn enjoyed meeting friends for book discussions, mah jong and the local theater. And she very much insisted on being back East for Cousin’s Clubs and making a yearly pilgrimage to Florida to spend even more time with her relatives and their friends who had fled the snow and ice.

Carolyn’s life and health was impacted by Alzheimers, which robbed her of her independence. Her devoted husband, family, and caregivers at Boone Ridge Memory Care always treated her with love and dignity in her final phase of life.

Surviving her are her husband of nearly 70 years, Meyer, her daughters Ellen (Ami) and Julie, (Mark) her grandchildren, Alex, Ben and Sam, her sister Arlene, her brother Mel (Lorraine), her brother-in-law Abe (Esther), and many nieces, nephews and cousins.