Carol E. Pedersen, 65, a former teacher at Trinity Lutheran Church and Preschool in Des Plaines, died of ovarian cancer Sunday, Nov. 3, in Hospice of the North Shore, Skokie. A 23-year resident of Arlington Heights, Mrs. Pedersen was born in Oak Park and grew up in Maywood. She graduated from Proviso High School in 1955 and met her husband, George, while earning a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Carthage College. She taught at Garfield School, the Maywood elementary school she attended. A few years later she became a preschool teacher at Trinity Lutheran, where she stayed for more than 10 years. She switched careers in 1980 to become a policy specialist for Zurich Life, an insurance company in Schaumburg. She retired in 1993 after 13 years at Zurich Life. Mrs. Pedersen read history books and biographies of women in her spare time and collected volumes on her family’s genealogy. She was “a very quiet, well-organized, caring person,” her husband said. Other survivors include a son, Scott; two daughters, Barbara Vasquez and Nancy Rzonca; her mother, Ruth Schipper; a sister, Joan Everaert; and six grandchildren. A service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday in Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 1234 N. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights.
