Carol Hunt-Clerici of Walpole, a counseling psychologist and former faculty personnel assistant in Boston College’s academic vice president’s office, died January 16, 2018, of heart failure. She was 79.
Born on March 14, 1938, in New York, Carol was a 1955 graduate of Norwood High School. Nearly 25 years after graduating, and after having three children, she decided to pursue higher education while working at Boston College. She earned two degrees at BC, a bachelor’s in psychology in 1987 and a master’s in counseling psychology in 1991.
She was a longtime Walpole resident, a Walpole Town Meeting member, and worked in the Walpole school system at Bird Middle School, Fisher Elementary School, and as an AFSCME union rep and union negotiator. She also worked at the Leland Hall School in Norfolk and was a counselor at Summerhill House, a residential facility for teen mothers in Norwood.
She worked at Boston College for 20 years, first at the Office of Student Programs and Resources and then as faculty personnel assistant at the academic vice president’s office under AVP Fr. Joseph Fahey, SJ, and then AVP Fr. William Neenan, SJ. She also contributed to several BC organizations, including the Lynch School of Education and BC Law School; served on numerous boards at BC, including the Staff Advisory Senate, the Elections Committee, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship Committee; and at several BC events met such luminaries as Gov. Mario Cuomo, Danny Glover, Sen. Gary Hart, Abbie Hoffman, Rev. Jesse Jackson, G. Gordon Liddy, and her teen idol Gordon MacRae.
Her charity work extended to several committees and events, including as a committee member of Wrentham Developmental Center’s annual Friends of Wrentham Celebrity Golf Tournament (a fundraiser for the developmentally-challenged residents) and also as committee member, treasurer, and volunteer coordinator of the “Camy 5K Run & David 5K Walk” in Walpole, among whose benefactors have included Brigham & Women’s, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Norwood Hospital, One Fund Boston, Walpole Community Food Pantry, Walpole Italian-American Club & Society, and the Wrentham Developmental Center.
She loved spending time with her family at get-togethers, concerts, games, high tea, plays, and meeting famous people through her sons’ work, events, or interests, including actors Peter Falk, Katharine Hepburn, James Earl Jones, Frank Langella, Jerry Lewis, Leonard Nimoy; violinist Itzhak Perlman; composer Richard Rodgers; athletes Gary Player, Steve Grogan, Jo Jo White, Bobby Orr, Brad Park, Milt Schmidt, Patti & Dan Dillon, Bobbi Gibb, Roger Robinson, Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Frank Shorter, Kathrine Switzer; President Bill Clinton, Mass. Senate President William Bulger, and Boston mayor Tom Menino, among them. She also enjoyed attending golf tournaments, hockey games, and road races (especially the Boston Marathon, Hyannis Marathon, Falmouth Road Race) in which her husband and sons were competing. And she loved traveling, which included trips to Bermuda, Canada, England, Ireland, the Berkshires, Tanglewood, Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Cape Cod, Chicago, Hawaii, New York, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and a cruise.
Carol was the wife of the late Francis “Frank” Anthony Clerici Sr. She is survived by her son, Frank Clerici Jr. and daughter-in-law Regina Clerici, and son, Paul Clerici, all of Walpole, and many loving cousins, relatives, and friends. She was also the mother of the late David Clerici of Walpole. Carol was the daughter of the late William and Mary Alice Grace Hunt.
Visiting hours will be held on Wednesday, January 24, from 3-7 p.m., at Ginley Funeral Home, 892 Main St., Walpole. (www.ginleyfuneralhomes.com) Burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy made payable to “Camy 5K” may be made to the Camy 5K Run, c/o Paul Clerici, P.O. Box 99, South Walpole, MA 02071.