Carol Gillard Bombeck
Carol Gillard Bombeck, 75, died Feb. 28, 2011, of respiratory failure.
Carol was born Carol Anne Gillard in Milwaukee, Wis. on Jan. 13, 1936, while her father, Dr. Frederick Gillard, was attending Marquette University School of Dentistry. Dr. Gillard and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Ajo, Ariz., after his graduation in 1936.
In 1942, the Gillard family moved to Los Angeles, where Carol graduated from Dorsey High School in 1954. She was active in the Christian Fellowship movement in her high school. This interest stayed with her when she enrolled as a scholarship student at the University of Southern California. She demonstrated an early interest in art and was encouraged by her mother, who painted large floral canvases and taught art classes.
In 1954, Dr. Gillard entered the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel and a dentist in the Medical Corps, and the next year, he moved his family to Giessen, Germany. Carol continued her education at the Institute of European Studies in Vienna, Austria, and in an overseas program of the University of Maryland in Munich.
In 1956, she married Peter Bidstrup, a member of the U.S. Armed Forces in Giessen, Germany. They returned to the United States in 1957 and moved to Boston where her husband obtained a degree from Harvard. They had two sons, Peter, born Nov. 5, 1957, and Bruce, born March 8, 1960.
Between 1970 and 1972, Carol assisted in the opening of a new hotel chain Doubletree Inns. She directed initial advertising, interior design, restaurant and menu planning, room decor and uniform design. In 1973, Carol received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University.
She was the first executive director of the Arizona Kidney Foundation in 1973-74 and established the foundation's women's board in 1973. Her involvement with this organization began because both of her sons had kidney disease. Peter died in 1975 at age 17, and Bruce died in 1984 at age 24.
To honor them, she established the Arizona Kidney Foundation Peter and Bruce Bidstrup Scholarship Fund to provide academic and financial support for Arizona kidney dialysis and transplant patients. Countless patients and families survive the financial devastation of kidney disease with aid provided through the scholarship fund and the Patient Services Fund, which she also helped establish.
From 1974 to the 1990s, she was involved in commercial real estate with Grubb & Ellis, Kaiser Aetna and Davidson Myers. In 1990, she established her own commercial real estate office.
Carol was active in the local arts community. From 1976 to 1978 she was director of development at Phoenix Art Museum. From 1997 to 2000, she was a consultant with the ASU Art Museum, where she organized an exhibition of works from the Jean and Howard Lipman collection of American art.
In addition to her professional and volunteer service to the Arizona Kidney Foundation, Carol had a long history of community involvement. Her activities included the City of Phoenix Board of Adjustment, Scottsdale Center for the Arts Board, Junior League of Phoenix, Phoenix Art Museum League, Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, Visiting Nurse Service, Futures for Children, the Erma Bombeck Organ Donor Awareness Project, Arizona Town Hall and Charter 100.
Carol had a special relationship with her 11 nieces and nephews. She loved her stepchildren, Elizabeth and Tiffany Bluemle and Betsy, Andy and Matt Bombeck. She remembered birthdays and created unique and personalized cards with original verses and drawings. In the mid-1990s she began a tradition of taking a niece starting high school on a coming-of-age trip. They went to New York City for days of sightseeing, Broadway and museum experiences.
Carol received the National Kidney Foundation Volunteer Services Award in 1994 and the Arizona Kidney Foundation Virginia G. Piper Humanitarian Award with her husband, Bill Bombeck, in 2005.
