Carroll Beard

ORANGE - Carroll Beard, 91, passed away peacefully after a brief illness on Friday, April 5, 2024, while surrounded by family.

Born on July 21, 1932, to Frank and Bernice (Flanders) Beard, Carroll grew up on the family farm in Orange. His sister Elsie was born two years after him and they were the best of friends throughout their lives.

Carroll stayed home and worked on the family farm after graduating from high school until at the age of 28 he enrolled in the Engineering program at the University of Vermont.  After earning his degree, he lived and worked in Boston for a time before moving back to Vermont. He met Nancy (Holt) Wolford and her son Robert Wolford in Burlington through mutual friends and Carroll and Nancy were married in 1968. They expanded their family in 1970 to include daughter Julie.

He worked for CVPS in Rutland and then went on to work at VELCO up until his retirement in 1995.

Carroll and Nancy sold their home in Center Rutland and built their retirement home on land he owned in Orange. It was in retirement that Carroll truly lived his passions. He spent his days working outside on his land, cutting firewood for himself and his family and gathering sap and making maple syrup during the sugaring season in the sugarhouse he built himself. If he wasn’t outside working on one project or another then you could usually find him in his workshop building furniture. Those of us closest to him are lucky enough to have been given ‘Carroll Beard original’ pieces of furniture we proudly display throughout our homes. He was an incredibly generous man to those he cared about most.

Carroll is survived by his daughter Julie (Beard) Reynolds and her husband, Jeff of West Berlin and their children Nick, Olivia, Elizabeth (Bizzy) and Lauren, granddaughter Ashleigh Lawrence and her husband, Brent of Burlington and their family, his son Robert Wolford and his wife, Lisa Backhaus of Bethel, his grandson Adam Wolford and his wife, Jen of Underhill and their family Cooper, Silas, Dexter and Grace, as well as cousins, nieces and nephews and dear friends.

He was predeceased by his parents, infant brother Joseph, sister Elsie and wife Nancy.

A celebration of Carroll’s life will take place on Saturday, May 4, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. in the Christ Community Alliance Church in Orange.  Following the service, inurnment will take place in the Orange Center Cemetery on George Street.  There are no calling hours.