Carole Phyliss Torguson

A Celebration of Life is set for May 4, 2019 at 11:00 am, Allnutt Drake Chapel, 650 W. Drake Road, Fort Collins, Colorado 80526. A reception will follow.

Carole was born on May 1, 1923, in Jamestown, ND to O’Dell and Eunice Amundson of Sanborn, ND. From a young age, her parents drove her to Jamestown for her weekly lessons with dance instructor, Marian Risk. After graduating from high school at sixteen, Carole enrolled at Jamestown College. Her academic ambitions were cut short by the war effort. She followed her sweetheart, Benjamin Torguson, to Abilene, TX where he was stationed to train troops headed overseas to fight. There, they married and it was there that their first two children, Mary Beth and Dain Louis, were born. After the war, the small family packed up and moved back to North Dakota, settling in Valley City. Both Ben and Carole had strong entrepreneurial spirits and began establishing their respective businesses while adding three more children to their young family; Terry Ann, Deborah Lynn and Rebecca Eileen. Carole opened Carole’s School of Dance and Ben, Green Valley Laundry, a commercial laundry and linen service. With five very active and involved children, Carole still managed to find time for civic involvement. She was Our Savior’s Lutheran’s Sunday School superintendent, staged, choreographed and made costumes for the church’s live pageants, choreographed numbers for the Miss Valley City pageants as well as for contestants, was active in her local PEO chapters, was an active member of the Fine Arts Guild and enjoyed her bridge club for which she hosted many wonderful themed gatherings. Together, Carole and Ben enjoyed square dancing throughout the 50’s and early 60’s. The family left North Dakota in 1968 and moved to Fort Collins, CO. In 1979, after several expansions of Carole’s dance schools, Canyon Concert Ballet Company was born and today, at 40, still thrives as Northern Colorado’s premiere regional ballet company. And with that, Carole’s lifelong dream came to fruition. After stepping down as the company’s artistic director, Carole continued to be involved with dance into her early 80’s by teaching very young dancers and by producing a series of instructional videos and manuals for dance teachers which were well received across the country.

Carole is survived by her four daughters; Mary Sullivan of Fort Collins, Terry Williams of Jackson, CA, Deborah Pyle of Flagstaff, AZ and Rebecca Terrell and husband Alan of Junction, TX, two grandchildren; Erica Burt and Megan Gascon, three great grandchildren; Gabi Gascon, Mason Burt and Jerrod Burt; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Eunice and O’Dell Amundson, her brother, Lowell “Budd” Amundson, her husband, Ben Torguson, her son, Dain Torguson, her grandson, John Engelhart and her son-in-law, Robert Williams.

Please join us on May 4th to celebrate Carole’s amazing life as a tireless mother of five, a mother of dance to thousands and as an entrepreneurial spirit in whom love and hard work converged to inspire both young and old alike. Please come freighted with copious amounts of joy and a voluminous number of stories with which to celebrate this life so well lived.

“In life, as in dance, Grace glides on blistered feet.” ~ Alice Abrams... And so it was for Carole.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Canyon Concert Ballet Company, or to Pathways Hospice of Northern Colorado.