Wayne Mortimer Carle

Dr. Wayne M. Carle, courageous and principled educator and civic leader, loving husband, father and friend, passed away peacefully on Sept. 7 at the age of 94, in the San Diego area, attended by family, after a brief illness.

As a school administrator, he served as Assistant Superintendent of the Akron (Ohio) Public Schools, then as Ohio’s Assistant State Superintendent.

In 1967 he was recruited to be Superintendent of Dayton’s Public Schools, where he served until 1973. In his consequential tenure as Dayton’s schools chief he implemented a wide range of reforms, including establishing the District’s first middle schools, and taking the District’s first steps toward racial integration in the historically segregated school system. He promoted the arts and inclusion, as a champion of the District’s Living Arts Center and in many other ways.

He was Superintendent of the School City of Hammond, Indiana, from 1973 to 1975, then a Vice President of Texas Southern University in Houston from 1975 to 1986.

He was Assistant Superintendent and then Superintendent of the Jefferson County (Colorado) School District – the state’s largest -- from 1987 to 1997, when he retired. A new middle school in the Jeffco School District was later named for him.

He was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, on March 9, 1930, to Evelyn and Leslie Carle, who raised their family in Green River, Wyoming, and Provo, Utah.

He was preceded in death by three spouses, Yolanda Perry Carle, Peggy Colyn Carle, and Shirley Ritter Carle.

He is survived by a sister, Marilyn Frens, and a brother, Richard Carle; children David Carle, Cindy Carle Davenport, Wendy Carle, and Perry Bradford Carle; stepsons Larry Hills, Randy Hills, Carlyle Sharpe, Steele Sharpe, and James Sharpe; four grandsons, four step-grandchildren, and four step-great-grandchildren. A sister, Elna Jean Carle, and a stepson, Michael Hills, predeceased him.

He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University and received a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He graduated with the Class of 1948 from Provo (Utah) High School, where he was student body president and a champion debater.

He taught at Union High School in Roosevelt, Utah (English and French), in the Provo City School District (English and journalism), and as a journalism instructor at BYU.

While in Provo he was news and program director at KOVO Radio in Provo and a writer-photographer for the Salt Lake Tribune.

He received recognition and numerous awards as a visionary and steadfast leader who did not shy away from difficult and sometimes controversial challenges. He was a lifelong champion of civil rights, equal opportunity and diversity.

His family recalls that throughout his good and long life he accomplished much for many, and he actively sought knowledge and justice up to the end. He was skilled in carpentry, as a writer and as a pianist and organist, and he was generous in donations of his time and resources to worthy causes and always to local blood banks. He sought insights and devoured books across his omnivorous interests, which ranged from philosophy to religion, science, art and culture. He donated hundreds of books to local charities.