Obituary of Carlen Quarnberg Penfold

Carlen Quarnberg Penfold December 26, 1916 – December 30, 2014 Carlen Quarnberg Penfold died December 30, four days past her 98th birthday, at her well loved apartment in Frasier Meadows in Boulder. Services will be held at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church at 2425 Colorado Ave. on January 10 at 1 p.m. with a reception to follow at the church. A resident of Boulder for nearly seven decades, Carlen was born in Belle Fourche, S. Dak., to Carl A. and Kathryn Alexander Quarnberg. One of their neighbors was Kenneth Craig Penfold, who took Carlen on her first date when she was 13. In 1932, Carl moved his family to Rapid City, S. Dak., with the headquarters of the Tri-State Milling Co., which his family owned and operated. Carlen graduated from high school in Rapid City in 1934. Although she was interested in following Ken to the University of Colorado, she enrolled at Carlton College in Northfield, Minn. She transferred to CU in 1936. Carlen counted among her friends and classmates Byron “Whizzer” White, the great athlete, student and future justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ken played football and baseball with Byron before graduating in 1937. A member of Delta Gamma sorority, Carlen was initiated into Phi Beta Kappa for her academic achievements prior to graduating in 1938. After a summer touring Europe, she attended Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Boston in 1939 because a degree in economics didn’t qualify her for a job in those days. On her way home from Boston, she stopped in Indianapolis to see Ken, who worked from there as a traveling secretary for the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He convinced her to get a job there. They were married in Rapid City on August 31, 1940. After another year in Indianapolis, the couple moved to Denver in 1942, where Ken worked for the C.A. Norgen Co. through World War II. Their son Craig was born in Denver in 1942, Larry in 1945 and Pam in 1948. The Penfolds moved to Boulder in 1949, where Ken became alumni director at CU. They bought a rural home with 17 acres on what is now BaseMar Shopping Center at the southeast corner of Broadway and Baseline. Daughter Paula was born in Boulder in 1953. As her children grew, Carlen became an active volunteer around Boulder – Cub Scouts, Girls Scouts, the CU Faculty Women’s Club, and on the advisory board for the CU Delta Gamma sorority for ten years. Carlen was president of the Women of St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church and a member of the building committee for the church on Colorado Ave. She was also a trust officer for the James Hynd Fund to assist the vision impaired in Boulder County, and worked on the renovation of CU’s Old Main and in the creation of the CU Heritage Center. The dining room at the Koenig Alumni Center on campus is named in honor of Ken and Carlen Penfold. She was chair of the Republican Women’s Forum, on the PTA board and on the Citizen’s Committee for School Bonds. She received numerous awards from the various groups she served. Carlen joined the Boulder Community Hospital Auxiliary in 1971, serving as president in 1976 and 1990, and working in numerous capacities, including the thrift shop and the surgery waiting room. She served on the BCH board from 1980-89 and was a founding trustee and secretary of the BCH Foundation board for nine years. In 2014 the Foundation’s board room was named for her in recognition of her 36 years as a volunteer for BCH. In addition to her volunteer efforts, Carlen served as president of the local PEO chapter, and was a long-time member of the Reviewers’ Book Club. She and Ken joined the Boulder Country Club in 1949 for the $100 membership fee, and enjoyed activities there for over five decades. Carlen loved to travel, driving her children around many parts of the United States during summer vacations and enjoyed trips to the Holy Land, Hawaii, China and Greece. She also took up watercolor painting in the 1970s, and her landscapes grace the walls of many homes. Carlen was part of the fabric of change and improvement in Boulder and will be missed by her family and many friends. She was preceded in death by her parents, brother and sister, and her husband Ken in 1999 and her son Larry in 2014. She is survived by her son Craig and wife Sharon of Dallas, daughters Pam Penfold and Paula Sinn-Penfold and her husband Rob of Boulder, and daughter-in-law Sharman Penfold of Boulder and Northern California. She is also survived by six grandchildren (Marlowe and husband George Kim, Ward and wife Jennifer Penfold, Conor Penfold, Haley Sinn-Penfold, Clark and Angela Penfold and Carlen and husband Derek Long) and four great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers or other gifts, contributions in her name may be made to St. Aidan’s (address above), the BCH Foundation (P.O. Box 9019, Boulder 80301), or the CU Foundation for the Koenig Alumni Center (P.O. Box 17126, Denver 80217).