Carol S. Geissler Memorial Scholarship Fund

The Carol S. Geissler Memorial Scholarship Fund, created in 2001, honors the memory of its namesake, whose career in education stretched from 1959 to 1997. A lifelong learner, Carol was an excellent student, teacher, tutor, world traveler, musician, wife, and mother.

She was valedictorian of her Marion Harding High School class and a magna cum laude graduate of Bowling Green State University, with honors in English. She spent the next 30 years teaching English and Spanish at Harding and Marion Technical College, serving as chair of the English Department at Harding for 12 of those years. Both of her children followed in her footsteps, her son, Eric, becoming a college professor and her daughter, Tracey, a teacher and guidance counselor.

Carol was a certified American Field Service (AFS) tour leader and lead student educational trips abroad to Mexico, England, Scotland and Spain. Musically talented, she was a certified piano teacher. And, she served as a tutor to two different Miss Ohio winners for their Miss America interviews.

Created by her husband and former Marion Community Foundation board member, Larry Geissler, and her family, this scholarship supports high achieving students of Marion Harding High School. Carol herself wrote the criteria for her scholarship prior to her passing from ALS disease in 2001. Special consideration is given to applicants who, like Carol, pursue a degree in education, majoring in Spanish, English, or communications, and demonstrate a passion for reading.