Guide to the Carolyn D. Spatta Papers

Carolyn Davis Spatta-Eckhart was born on January 20, 1935. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California Berkeley in 1964. From 1964 to 1965, she was a graduate and research student at the University of California Berkeley. She was awarded a National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship in Persian at the University of Michigan, where she went on to earn a master of arts degree and continued to earn her Ph.D. from the same institution in 1974.

Carolyn taught at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Michigan, while she completed her graduate school degrees. She then went on to accept a dual administrative position at Oberlin College in Ohio, serving as the corporate secretary of the college and assistant to the president. In 1978, she accepted an offer to serve as president of Damavand College in Tehran, Iran, and served in this position until January of 1979, when the Iranian Revolution led to her returning to the United States. She returned to Michigan to serve as vice president for administration at Eastern Michigan University. In 1981, she resigned from Eastern Michigan University, married her husband S. Peter Karlow, and moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked as an international business consultant. While in Washington, D.C., Carolyn held the position of director of institutional grants and programs and of the Consultation and Advisory Service at the Association of Colleges. She then went on to serve as president of administration and business affairs at California State University, Hayward. She taught as a professor of geography at the same institution. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Malaysia, where she worked as an administrative consultant to Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She ultimately retired and moved to Ocala, Florida.