Carol (Scott) Whelan

Obituary for Carol Scott Whelan, Ph.D.

Carol Scott Whelan – mother, wife, daughter, sister, educator,
and friend to all who crossed her path – died in Lacombe, LA on April
11, 2025.
She was born in 1949 to Don and Cornelia Scott in Oxford MA.
Carol grew up in Andover, MA and graduated from U. Mass.
Amherst. After graduation in the summer of 1971, Carol moved to
New Orleans and began her teaching career in the Jefferson Parish
Schools. Over the next 16 years she taught in several West Bank
Jefferson Parish Schools and served as a counselor and testing
administrator. While working in Jefferson, Carol was able to earn a
Master of Arts degree in Counseling and a Ph.D. in Educational
Administration at UNO. One Halloween night at the Maple Leaf Bar
she met a strange dude with a half green and half white painted face.
In 1985 Carol and Jim were married and together for the next forty
years.
In 1987 the Whelans moved to Lafayette where their son Alex
was born, and Carol began a new career teaching in higher
education at USL (now ULL). Her first teaching assignment included
Computer Literacy which put Carol in the forefront of the new field of
using computers in the classroom. Three years later Carol’s work
expanded when she established the Educational Technology Review
Center at USL. Through this center Carol networked with educators,
content experts, curriculum specialists, and information technology
developers across the state and the country, developing new ways
to use technology in the classroom. A friend once called Carol a
“People Weaver” for her ability to bring people together for a
common purpose.
Her success in this new field and her ability to work with the
many different educational groups across the state came to the
attention of Superintendent of Education Cecil Picard. He needed
help selling an ambitious proposal to the legislature to provide
funding for technology in the classroom to schools across the state.
He called on the president of USL for help asking to borrow Carol for
six months to work on this proposal. And these six months turned
into spending the next eight years in Baton Rouge. First, she headed
the Louisiana Center for Educational Technology (LaCET) which was
established by the legislature to distribute, manage, and train
educators with $38.2 million in the initial funding for educational
technology.
In 2003 she became the Assistant Superintendent of Education
for Educational Technology, Professional Development, and Teacher
Certification. Her most noteworthy success in this new position was
to solve the teacher certification problem – a weeks to months long
paper-shuffling procedure. With her tech savvy LaCET staff they built
an online data base system where educators submitted their
information, and within a few days they received approval.
Carol left Baton Rouge and state level educational
administration in the fall of 2004. By the New Year she was ready for
something new and returned to higher education at Tulane working
in the Teacher Preparation and Certification Program, and in 2005
the Whelans became empty nesters and moved to Lacombe.
At Tulane she taught Introduction to Education in a Diverse
Society, an elective open to any student, that included tutoring
students in public schools. This met the school’s Public Service
requirement and made it attractive to many students. Carol, the
great collaborator, was immediately working with Tulane students,
the Tulane Center for Public Service, and public-school teachers and
principals, building a network of different interest groups to learn
and support each other. In 2010 one of her students brought Carol
into a working group establishing a Social Innovation and Social
Entrepreneurship program. This program expanded Carol’s network
to other departments across campus and to even more students and
she soon received an endowed professorship. This provided
additional support for her to work with students developing socially
innovative projects and to present their work at national and
international meetings.
Carol never met a stranger. Whether you met her at a
professional meeting or at the deli counter in the grocery store you
soon became fast friends. She was always within a circle of friends.
In New Orleans it was the community living within the compound of
apartments along Third St. They were famous for “Pot Luck
Suppers” open to any and all and their legendary Halloween costume
parties.
The Whelans were a multi-generational family in Lafayette with
the addition of Alex in 1987 and Carol’s father, Don Scott, in1988.
Their circle of friends quickly expanded to include Alex’s playmates
and their parents, colleagues, neighbors, and Don’s dancing
partners from the senior center. Les Freres Michot was the house
band, and young and old were on the dance floor for the Whelan’s St
Patrick’s Day Fais do-dos.
Lacombe turned out to be an ideal spot to cycle the Tammany
Trace. Friends from New Orleans, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge would
join the Whelans for a ride to Mandeville, a pot-luck lunch followed by
a bayou cruise. More good times were shared with the Lake Road
Gang including the Krewe of Mis Fits’ annual boat parade. While in
Lacombe, Carol served on the Council on Aging for St. Tammany
Parish (COAST) and played a key role in bringing a new COAST
Activity Center to Lacombe.
Carol was preceded in death by her parents Don and Cornelia
Scott and four of her sisters -- Mary, Connie, Judy, and Kathy. She is
survived by her husband of forty years James Whelan and son
Alexander Scott Whelan (Danielle Cavaliere Whelan).
Carol experienced three different cancers: breast cancer in
2012, leukemia in 2016-17, and soft tissue sarcoma 2023-2025.
Throughout these difficult times Carol was able to maintain her joyful
disposition through the love, kindness and help of her friends and
family. Our thanks to all who shared these trying times with her for
their love and support.
A Celebration of Carol’s Life will be held on May 16, 2025 at 26363
Mildred Dr., Lacombe from 3-6 PM. A Memorial Fund has been
established at UNO.edu/donate for anyone wishing to contribute in
her honor.

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