Volunteer Spotlight: Carol Almeda-Morrow ’83 Strengthens Cranbrook Connections in New England

“Every good story starts with paying attention, and Kingswood is where I learned to pay attention—in the weaving room, on the tennis courts, in conversations, in an ordinary afternoon on campus,” she says.

That habit followed Carol to the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and into a career in marketing, consulting, development, and fundraising. By the late 1990s, she was back in Michigan working for Deloitte—and volunteering at Cranbrook as treasurer of the Kingswood Alumni Association. She later chaired Kingswood Giftorama, the association’s signature annual fundraiser, which generated significant support for capital projects, student programs, and scholarships during its nearly 40-year history.

Cranbrook was also where Carol met her high school sweetheart, Joe Morrow ’84. Seven years after the day they first met, they married in Ann Arbor in 1990 and went on to build a life together with their four children: Madeleine, Troy, Caroline, and Liam. The family later returned to Bloomfield Hills, where their children had the opportunity to attend Brookside and Carol and Joe reconnected with the Cranbrook community.

Joe died in 2021 at age 54. For Carol, remaining involved with Cranbrook has become one way of honoring both their shared history and the life they built together.

“Staying connected to the school has always meant staying connected to him, and to the person Cranbrook shaped me into,” she says. “Volunteering has been how I keep that thread alive. It isn’t nostalgia so much as continuity.”

Today, Carol lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and works as a political fundraising consultant. She also serves as Chair of Development on the Currier Museum of Art’s Board of Trustees and as a board member of the Wellesley Free Library. As a member of the New England CRAN committee, she draws upon her professional experience to help Cranbrook engage alumni and strengthen its presence in the region.

This fall, Carol and longtime friend Bruce McColl ’84, the Currier’s Director of Curatorial Affairs, are helping Cranbrook host two days of alumni programming in Manchester and Boston. Bruce and Joe were best friends at Cranbrook, and Bruce has remained one of Carol’s closest friends since she moved to New England. For Carol, planning the events with Bruce has made the experience especially meaningful—“It carries a piece of Joe in it too,” she says.

On Sunday, October 25, Bruce will welcome alumni to the Currier Museum of Art for tours of its two Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian homes—the Zimmerman House and Kalil House—followed by lunch and a private highlights tour of the museum’s collection. The following evening, Carol will help host a reception at The ’Quin House in Boston. Director of Schools Dr. Jeff Suzik will join alumni at both events and share news from campus.

Carol believes the architecture and design at the heart of both venues will resonate deeply with Cranbrook graduates.

“Cranbrook alumni grow up around architecture that asks you to slow down and notice,” she says. “You don’t walk past a Saarinen building without looking twice.”

She sees the Currier’s Frank Lloyd Wright houses and The ’Quin House—an 1888 Back Bay landmark reimagined by designer Ken Fulk—as extensions of a lesson Cranbrook teaches especially well: “Good design is never just decoration. It’s meaning made visible.”

Most of all, Carol looks forward to seeing alumni from different generations discover shared connections.

“Cranbrook people share an instinct to stay curious and keep learning long after graduation” she notes. “When alumni from different decades end up in the same room, that instinct connects them almost instantly.”

It is another expression of the principle that has guided Carol since Kingswood: “Find what’s worth loving, then build something around it.”

Sunday, October 25
Currier Museum of Art
150 Ash Street, Manchester, New Hampshire

Monday, October 26 | 6:30 p.m.
The ’Quin House
217 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts

Registration information will be available soon. Alumni who live or work in—or are visiting—the region are welcome to attend either or both events. Space will be limited, with places offered in order of registration. Email alumni@cranbrook.edu if you are interested in attending one or both events.