Coral Corsaut

1940 - 2020

Coral Corsaut
November 24, 1940 - December 29, 2020
San Luis Obispo, California - Coral Jean Corsaut, 80, is home with her Lord after a year long battle with reoccurring cancer. She passed away on Tuesday December 29, 2020 in San Luis Obispo, California. She was born in 1940 to Sheldon W. and Lois C. (Pierce) Swickard in Tiffin. Ohio.
At a young age Coral's family moved to California. She attended West Los Angeles schools and graduated from University High School where she enjoyed her studies and singing in the school choir. Outside school, she loved her Girl Scout friends and activities. Her love of academics led her to Santa Monica City College and Westmont College in Santa Barbara where she graduated with a major in education and a minor in math. Later, post graduate classes were taken from UCLA, UCSB and Cal State Northridge. She taught secondary math from 1962-1977 in Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills and Exeter, followed by teaching at Cuesta College and then being director of the Central Coast Math Center in Arroya Grande until 1987.
In 1987 Coral was hired as an academic instructor at the California Men's Colony (CMC) in San Luis Obispo. She was a conscientious and dedicated teacher, warm and compassionate, loved giving words of encouragement and learned from her own advice. During her almost 20 years career at CMC she was chosen "Teacher of the Year" for the 1992-93 school year and selected as a finalist for the Correctional Education Association (CEA) Region VII Teacher of the Year. Her most challenging activity at CMC was visualizing and establishing "Project Change", a program for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. One reason this program was successful was that Coral was a role model for anyone that wanted to make a change in their life; she was willing to "walk the talk". Coral also taught GED (General Education Preparation), PreRelease (prepares those to reenter society) and ABE1 (Adult Basic Education 1, Grades 1-3).
Coral loved music, singing, the outdoors, camping, hiking and watching home and garden shows on TV. Her greatest joy was connecting with family, friends and neighbors. She was always so thankful for the friends she called family and for neighbors that lived close to her. She looked for those who needed a smile, a word of encouragement or someone to listen to them. In these last months, she had so much gratitude for the help and well wishes of those around her. In addition to these wonderful folks she met in San Luis Obispo, she is survived by her brother, Ernie and his wife Jan, and Arlene, her sister, all from Washington. She has cousins (Randy, Jackie, Marilyn and Janie) living in Colorado and Montana. And lastly, all the nephews, nieces and their children in Texas, Washington and California.
A small graveside gathering was held at San Luis Cemetery to share sweet memories and celebrate her life.