Carol Ann (Seidel) Lombaerde, the former president of the Sussex County School Boards Association and a former member of multiple school boards who played a leading role in various New Jersey education initiatives, died Nov. 27.
Born Nov. 19, 1935, in Prospect Park, New Jersey, she graduated from Hawthorne High School in 1953 and lived in Layton, New Jersey, 51 years.
She was the recipient of the 1979 Distinguished Services to Education Award. In her community, she was a 4-H Leader, member of the Sandyston Election Board, member of the Coalition for Better Public Education, member and president of the Sandyston Walpack PTA, volunteer librarian for the Sandyston Walpack School for 12 years and member of the Sandyston Walpack School Board for 15 years, where she served as vice president and president.
She compiled the Master Plan for the Sandyston Walpack School District and served on its Regionalization Study Committee. She was on the Kittatinny Regional School Board of Education for 10 years, serving as president for four years. She took basic and advanced negotiation courses from Metzler Associates and advanced bargaining seminars from the New Jersey School Boards Association.
She was a chief negotiator for Sandyston Walpack School and for Kittatinny Regional High School. She also served on the Regional Joint Transportation Committee and on the Regional Advisory Council for Special Education. In Sussex County, she was a member of the Sussex County Consumer Affairs Bureau, secretary for the Sussex County Traffic Safety Council, member of the Sussex County AVA Commission, president of the Sussex County PTA, a member of the Drug Curriculum Study Committee for the Newton School System, regional coordinator in Sussex County and part of Morris County for the “Our Schools” program.
She also served on the Committee for Higher Education in Sussex County, was president of the Sussex County School Boards Association, member of the Sussex County Teacher Center Advisory Board, and helped establish the first Teacher Center in New Jersey.
She was elected as the first president of the Sussex County Educational Services Commission when it was organized in 1978. On the state level, she was a member of the New Jersey School Boards Association Delegate Assembly and the Tax Exemption Committee and the Bicentennial Committee; she was also a member of the State Tax Ratable Loss Committee.
She was a member of the St. James the Greater Roman Catholic Church in Montague, where she was the sacristan, eucharistic minister and lector. She had a deep, abiding faith and spent many hours a day in prayer. She was also a parishioner at Our Lady of the Holy Angels in Little Falls.
A private funeral Mass and burial in Hainesville Cemetery was held at the convenience of the family.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. James the Greater Roman Catholic Church, 75 River Road, Montague, NJ 07827
Arrangements were by the Gray Parker Funeral Home, 160 East Main Street, Port Jervis, New York.
