About Carol

Carol was born September 3, 1925, on the family farm at the Lost Springs stop on the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas. She was the middle of five children for Omer and Dorothy Shields. Their farm was next to her grandparents. Her childhood was pleasant until her mother died when she was 5 years old. 

The children were to be raised by her grandmother, but within a couple months, the grandmother found that she was terminal with cancer. Carol and her sister Arlene where taken in by their mother’s brother, an intellectual farmer, farming 2 miles South of Wamego, Kansas. But his wife made it difficult for the girls. The combination of this Aunt Carrie having been the youngest and spoiled brat in her family, never having children of her own, and resenting the sacrifices from having 2 girls added to her household created problems for the girls.

Knowing that they were of the strong and leading Shields family helped sustain the girls. Then the new 4-H program gave them an avenue to excel and flourish. Their only money until through high school was their 4-H fair prize winnings. They worked their way through Kansas State University getting degrees and getting married.

An aunt had married the K-State football hero of her era. Mickey Evans became head of the Physical Education Department and the aunt was on the Home Economics staff. They provided moral support for the girls. Then Carol married Mickey’s youngest brother, a World War II bomber pilot veteran injured in Italy. He became a veterinarian and joined the K-State staff. Later he joined the Auburn University staff. Three children were born while in Manhattan, Kansas and one after moving to Auburn, Alabama. A one year sabbatical in Canada added variety for the family. He switched to supporting the poultry industry, moved the family to Russellville, Arkansas, got with a woman from France, and abandoned his family.

After some difficult years, Carol moved back to Manhattan, Kansas. A few years later, she met Jim Schoof. They were married in 1975 when he accepted a position with the United Nations FAO in Libya. After 4 years in Libya with the country becoming increasingly like the Soviet Union with terrible living conditions, they transferred to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was a beautiful country with lovely people. After 2 years, they returned to the USA in 1981.

They lived in Jim’s home town of Council Grove, then to Wichita where Jim worked for the State of Kansas, then to Topeka for another State job. In early 1989, Jim was accepted for a team leader position on a rural development project in Baluchistan, Pakistan. Carol stayed in a nice house in Karachi and Jim lived in the project compound in Turbat. Late in 1990, they transferred to Faiyum, Egypt. Late 1991, they moved to Cairo. In the Spring of 1993, they returned to the USA to a house being built in San Antonio, Texas. That has become their home in retirement.