Remembrance by Linda Klimach
Carol Plumer (1901-1995)
Caroline (Carol) Plumer, a graduate of Wellesley and Columbia, was called to be a missionary school teacher in India and China. Having met and married James Plumer in Shanghai, they moved together to Ann Arbor in 1937.
When Bishop Emerich proposed establishing an Episcopal mission in the fast- growing suburbs of southeast Ann Arbor, Carol’s friend and family doctor, Inez Wisdom, donated half of her property on Packard Rd as a site for the new congregation and Carol became one of the founding members of St. Clare’s. She was the first president of the Altar Guild (retiring from that position in 1983 after 30 YEARS!). She was editor of and a regular contributor (as The Hagiographer) to the St. Clarian. She attended the early Sunday service and was a faithful (and in the early days, often the only) worshipper on Thursday mornings with Doug Evett in the St. Francis chapel. She wrote a poem in honor of the dedication of Genesis in 1975 and was instrumental in founding the Jewish-Christian discussion group that met for over 12 years. Even in her 90s, she was a force to be reckoned with thanks to her life of service and worship.
In 1986 more than 200 parishioners donated over $10,000 to install four glass windows in the St. Francis chapel depicting scenes from the life of St. Clare. While the two short windows in the front wall of the chapel are dedicated to Inez Wisdom and Gertrude Griffith “donors of this chapel”, the long side windows nearest the door are dedicated “TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN LOVE AND THANKSGIVING FOR CAROLINE I. PLUMER, FRIEND AND SUSTAINER OF THIS PARISH CHURCH”. Carol was a courageous root of our congregation whom Doug Evett once described as “one of the most remarkable Episcopalians in the whole of the Anglican communion” and “I have never known anyone in whom Christ was more present”.
