Barbara Elizabeth Seastrand Carpenter

Barbara Elizabeth Seastrand Carpenter, 88, of Carlsbad, CA, former President of the San Diego County Board of Education, died peacefully on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.

Born on April 1, 1935 in New Britain, CT to Swedish immigrant parents, Barbara spent her early years as a ward of the state at the Klingberg Children's Home in New Britain, CT, where she distinguished herself as a talented musician with perfect pitch. When a piano was donated to the Children's Home, Barbara convinced one of the staff members to teach her how to read notes. She began practicing the piano daily, often for hours, after school and daily chores. Soon, she could hear a song just once and was able to play it. A donor to the Children's Home recognized her rare talents and sponsored a few years of weekly lessons. In high school, Barbara became the oldest, longest-staying resident of the Children's Home, overseeing a hundred of her younger, fellow "Home kids"-all while continuing to master Bach, Schumann, and Chopin on the piano, and maintaining an A average in her classes. Upon graduation, she was offered a four-year piano scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Instead, she chose to blaze her own trail. Ever independent, she left the Children's Home to work as a secretary at General Electric, where she typed as flawlessly as she played Rachmaninoff at her solo recital when she was just eighteen.

Ever the maverick, her career spanned multiple disciplines. An amateur painter, in the early 1970s, while newly divorced with three children to help support, she convinced the head of the design department at The Hartford Insurance Company to hire her as a graphic designer. She distinguished herself in that role, too, and was quickly promoted; she went on to work in design for the Rourke-Eno Paper Company, where she met her second husband.

Coming full circle, she returned to the Klingberg Home in her late thirties, this time to serve as the first woman elected to the Board of Trustees. She remained on the Board for thirteen years, as the institution transitioned into becoming the Klingberg Family Center, a nationally recognized treatment facility for families and adolescents in crisis.

In her mid-forties, Barbara had her fourth child and simultaneously began her college career. She received her BA from the University of Connecticut in 1980 and her Ph.D in Education in 1984.

An early advocate for gender-equity and school-to-career transition programs, she received a Master of Boardsmanship Award from the California School Board Association for her commitment to California Public Education in 1993. That same year, she was elected to the San Diego County Board of Education and served as President of the Board for a one-year term in 1996. An adjunct faculty member of National University, she taught Foundations of Education and graduate courses on Career Development, as well as facilitating the development of a Masters of Arts program in Community Counseling.

Happiest when fully immersed in a project, in her later years Barbara shifted her focus to real estate. Over the course of two and half decades she bought, lived in, renovated, and sold more than fifty homes.

Gifted and dynamic, irrepressible and irreplaceable, Barbara's passions included homemaking, art, books, and movies; to her last, she was always accompanied by at least one of her beloved dogs. A romantic at heart, she married five times.

She is survived by her son Glenn Edgarian and daughter-in-law Barbara of Carlsbad, CA, and grandson Casey; daughter Leslie Edgarian of Cardiff, CA, and grandson Sam Sindt; daughter Carol Edgarian and son-in-law Tom Jenks of San Francisco, CA, and granddaughters Lucy and Olivia Jenks; and daughter Jennifer Morris and son-in-law Steve of Carlsbad, CA, and grandson Ryland and granddaughter Shiloh.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be given in Barbara's name to the SPCA.