Carole Sprenger

Aug. 23, 1933-Sept. 22, 2007

Gresham resident Carole Sprenger, 74, longtime Centennial third-grade teacher, died Saturday, Sept. 22, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

A memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 18630 S.E. Division St., where she had been a member since 1968.

Carole was born Aug. 23, 1933, in Pomeroy, Wash., to Lawrence and Dorothy (Simmons) Watson. When she was 3, the family moved to Grandview, Wash., where she graduated from Grandview High School in 1951. She graduated from Washington State University in Pullman, Wash., in 1955, where she met Fred Sprenger. They were married in Grandview, Wash., on June 16, 1956.

She was a charter member and past president of the Gresham branch of the American Association of University Women, a board member of the Mount Hood Literacy Coalition and a devoted letter writer. For instance, she and her family donated to the Christian Children’s Fund to educate three boys and four girls in Brazil. She wrote letters to them every month over a period of 20 years.

Carole taught briefly in Richland and Vancouver, Wash., and began moving around Oregon with her husband, who was in the U.S. Forest Service. They lived in Grants Pass, John Day and Roseburg before coming to Portland in 1968, where she then joined Centennial School District, teaching 23 years before her retirement in 1991.

At Covenant Presbyterian Church, she served as a deacon, elder, clerk of the session, teacher and on various committees. In the summer, she and her sons delivered meals for Loaves & Fishes. She was named a woman of achievement by Gresham’s American Association of University Women. She also tutored English as a second language from 1991 to 2000.

After retirement, the Sprengers traveled in their motor home and began a series of three-week group tours Volkswalking in central Europe, Austria, Germany, Holland, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. They traveled throughout the world. Carole enjoyed reading good books and corresponding with friends and family, regretting that in her last months she fell behind in her responses.

Carole, who wrote her own obituary, said she “was grateful that ALS came in her 70s and not her 30s.”

She was preceded in death by two of her sons, Douglas and John, and her brother, Larry Watson.

She is survived by her husband; sons, David Sprenger of Portland and James Sprenger of Central Point; sister, Kay Clark-Herbruck of Ojai, Calif.; and six grandchildren.

Memorial contributions can be made to Covenant Presbyterian Church, 18630 S.E. Division St., Gresham, 97030, or ALS Association, 320 S.W. 4th Ave., Suite 630, Portland, 97204.

Gresham Funeral chapel is in charge of arrangements.