Carol Herzog Walton ’59
Carole Herzog Walton lost her father at a young age and was the only child of a single mother. Assured of a position as a clerk in a local factory, Carol had no intention of attending college. Inspired and encouraged by the nuns at Nazareth High School, however, she found herself with a full scholarship to Rosary College. Carol earned a bachelor’s degree at Rosary and a master’s degree at Northwestern. A former high school teacher and college professor, and now a storyteller with her own weekly radio show and a docent at an art museum, Carol attributes her lifelong thirst for knowledge in part to her experiences at Rosary.
One of Carol’s greatest inspirations was a Rosary College English professor, Sr. Cyrille Gill, OP ’22, who taught six of Carol’s classes. “A small woman, maybe five foot two,” Carol recalled, “but she spoke as if she were seven feet tall. Every thought was fully formed, and her lessons were filled with meaning. Outside of class, she was very motherly—when people needed it. We were the best of friends after we were teacher and student, and I have never thrown away anything she sent me in over 40 years of correspondence. Now I correspond with my former students in the same way.”
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A name inscribed in Founders Court will be a name inscribed in the hearts and minds of countless Dominican University graduates. English professor Sr. Cyrille Gill, OP ’22 exemplified the Dominican way, imparting her own sense of curiosity to her students and examining life through discussions of the great works of literature. She willed to Carol Herzog Walton a book (which had been a gift from Carol), as well as some photographs and her silver pen. “There was no note, but we were beyond words,” said Carol. Generations of Sr. Cyrille’s students remember her in much the same way.