Carol des Cognets

Trustee

Carol came to live in Tucson for a pleasant retirement, in a city she loves for its climate, ready access to good music and theatre, and general small town feel. This follows a “career” based on her two sons, a couple of super husbands, a lot of voluntary work, and an interesting life in the U.S. and Australia.

Born in Ithaca, upstate New York, she graduated from Cornell University with a BA in philosophy. After time spent in Paris, Boston and Ohio, marriage to Bill Clendenin, and eight years in San Francisco, Bill’s work took the family to Melbourne. Expecting to be there no more than three to four years, no-wanted to leave after five and they became permanent residents. On Bill’s death in 1992, Carol became an Australian citizen. Five years later, she married Archer des Cognets, an old university friend, and began living half the year in Melbourne, and half in western Massachusetts. It was on Archer’s death in 2008 that Carol chose Tucson as a place to be near her family in the U.S. – her boys in California, and sister in Tucson. She escapes the Tucson summer by returning to Melbourne for five months of the year.

Her extensive volunteer work includes board and leadership positions at the Planned Parenthood of San Mateo County, Berry Street Child and Family Care in Melbourne, National Trust of Australia, Lyceum Club Melbourne (an international university women’s club), Royal Children’s Hospital, and Friends of Heide (contemporary art gallery).