Carolyn Weaver Hertzler

Carolyn W. Hertzler, 96, through eight decades in Goshen a piano teacher, accompanist, mentor, and working mother, died peacefully near Philadelphia on October 13 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Carolyn was born in La Junta, Colorado, the first of three children of Martin and Esther Weaver.  Her grandchildren recall her telling of walking a horse across her wooden porch because she loved hearing its footsteps.

In 1936 her parents abandoned farming to the Dust Bowl and moved the family to Virginia, piano in tow.  Martin had worked in Near East Relief in Aleppo (now in Syria) after World War I; Carolyn later donated his diary and photographs as evidence of the Armenian genocide.  Martin became a truck driver, and Esther later operated a convalescent home in Waterford and worked as a licensed practical nurse.

When her high school in Denbigh (now Newport News) ended after 10th grade in 1942, Carolyn entered Goshen College at the age of 16 to study “business,” meaning shorthand and other secretarial skills.  Faculty recognized her for outstanding musical ability and encouraged her to stay for a four-year degree, whereupon her parents and siblings also moved to Goshen.  She majored in music and studied piano, paying her way by serving as secretary to college administrators.

Beginning in college, Carolyn often accompanied students and faculty members, usually on piano but sometimes on harpsichord.  Her alto voice blended with many a choir, caroling, and congregational hymn singing over the years.  She went back to school in her 50s and earned a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Indiana University in 1982.  She taught private piano students in her home almost her entire adult life, and until her late 80s accompanied her children, her students, and other musicians in countless performances.  At 91 she still held a job playing piano and organ at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Goshen.  Despite losing much of her memory to Alzheimer’s, she played the keyboard competently until less than two weeks before her death.

Carolyn helped found the Goshen Elkhart Music Teachers Association in 1985, and frequently served as treasurer, secretary, or president.  She was active in the Indiana Music Teachers Association, which awarded her a Distinguished Service Award, and the National Music Teachers Association, which made her a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and gave her a lifetime achievement award.  GEMTA soon ceased operations when she was unable to continue active involvement, but the South Bend Music Teachers Association made her a lifetime member in 2018.

She mentored other teachers, especially GEMTA members.  She played piano in “Messiah” and hymnsings every year.  She was active for decades in the American Association of University Women, and helped organize community activities ranging from teaching French to elementary school children in the 1960s to recycling motor oil in the 1980s.  She loved nature and cared about protecting it.  When people asked for her help, she helped.  She visited her mother in a nursing home every day for years before her mother’s death.

Except for five years in Elkhart and six in Muskegon, Michigan, Carolyn lived in Goshen from 1942 to 2018.  She married Paul W. Hertzler in 1948, and they raised three children.  Paul worked as a photographer, then in middle management in various factories (most recently Goshen Rubber Co.), then founded what is now Hertzler Systems, a Goshen company that provides statistical process control software and analysis designed to minimize errors in manufacturing.  Carolyn played a key role in the early operations management of the company.

Paul died in 1994.  In 1996 Carolyn began an almost 20-year marriage with Harold E. Bauman, who had recently lost his wife Elizabeth, a college friend of Carolyn’s.  Carolyn loved being part of both extended families, and entertained and visited them often.  Harold died in 2016 just after they moved into a retirement apartment at Greencroft.  She moved near Philadelphia in 2018 to be close to family.

Carolyn is survived by

her children Dan Cantú-Hertzler (Deb) of Philadelphia, Larry Hertzler (Linda) of Carmel, Indiana, and Nancy Hertzler of Cincinnati; grandchildren Jeremy Hertzler, Kristi Schaefer (Nathan), Lara Cantu-Hertzler, Anthony Hertzler, Evan Hertzler (Lis), Lauren Pobiak (Aaron), and Matt Hertzler; great grandchildren Clyde Weaver Alexander Schaefer and Willow Ana Hertzler; her younger brother G. Eugene Weaver (Ruby) of New Bern, North Carolina (formerly Elkhart); former in-laws Roger Troyer (Carolyn and Gene’s younger sister Marian Troyer died in 2018), Elam Hertzler, John Bender, and Galen Swope; 18 nieces and nephews and their families; Harold’s children Philip Bauman (Connie) of Goshen; John Bauman (Susan Ebersole) and David Bauman (Linda Taylor), both of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Rebecca Bauman (Jeanne Keenan passed away in 2016) of South Pasadena, California; seven of Harold’s grandchildren and five step-great-grandchildren; countless students, colleagues, and friends, including Carol Oyer of Goshen (with Carolyn a four-year member of the Goshen College Gospel “Quartette”) and Mary Kay King of West Liberty, Ohio, the last participants in Carolyn’s 75-year “circle letter” with college classmates; and dear friends of more than 60 years from her time in Muskegon, Ellen Rockwood of North Muskegon and Fran Torresen of Belfast, Maine.

Memorial arrangements are pending.  Interment is to be at Violett Cemetery in Waterford.  Contributions may be made in memory of Carolyn W. Hertzler to Goshen College for scholarships for African students; to her congregation of more than 70 years, College Mennonite Church; or to the instrumental music program of a local public school.