2022 Alumni Award Recipient
Fall 2022
Lifetime Service Award
Kathy (Gaines 鈥78) Carr
Retired educator and administrator, Fort Wayne Community Schools
Bluffton 鈥78
Major: Elementary education
Following her path
Over the course of her 40-plus-year career in education, Kathy (Gaines 鈥78) Carr estimates she touched the lives of roughly 6,000 children. However, the recipient of Bluffton鈥檚 Lifetime Service Award explains her dedication to the students, teachers and the larger community of Fort Wayne, Ind., as simply 鈥渕y path to follow.鈥
Carr followed a path inspired by her mother who was also a teacher. Growing up, it was a given that Carr would attend college to become a special education teacher. She never researched any other career.
鈥淚t was always in my heart that that was what I wanted to do,鈥 said Carr. 鈥淚 never really wanted to do anything else.鈥 Guided by Ruth Anne (Steiner) Sprunger, her mom鈥檚 best friend and 1951 Bluffton alumna, it was also a given that Carr would attend Bluffton.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know much about Bluffton, and I was not Mennonite,鈥 explained Carr, 鈥渂ut it was a small school that wasn鈥檛 very far from home and that was appealing to me.鈥
She later earned master鈥檚 degrees in elementary education and elementary school administration from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. However, Carr began her career as a special education teacher.
Pushing her 鈥榯entacles鈥 further
Eventually, she pursued administrative roles and served as a resource teacher, dean of students, principal and manager of human resources. Carr retired from Fort Wayne Community Schools in 2019 after five years as director of human resources but served as the interim director of exceptional learners at South Bend Community Schools for a year and a half, ending in April 2022.
鈥淏y being an administrator, you could touch every student in the building. You had contact with every teacher, every staff person. I wasn鈥檛 limited to the walls of my classroom per se,鈥 explained Carr. 鈥淭he tentacles went a little further, and, hopefully, the input and impact I had on people reached a little further, as well.鈥
Making a difference
During her career, Carr was active on many boards and service organizations ranging from the Indiana Black Expo to the National Education Association to the board of directors for the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission.
鈥淢y mom was always very involved in the community as I was growing up. I think I tried to emulate her life,鈥 said Carr. 鈥淚 focused on organizations that had something to do with education or children or served the wellbeing of others.鈥
Carr鈥檚 two daughters now carry on the family legacy by working in Indiana schools, and she continues to get recognized by former students. The encounters confirm that she made a difference in people鈥檚 lives.
鈥淏ut I know, bigger than that, there are the people who touched my life,鈥 Carr said. 鈥淔orty-two years working in the same district really framed me into the person I am.鈥