ASOR mourns the passing of long-time member and trustee, Carolyn Midkiff Strange. Below is an excerpt from Carolyn’s obituary. The full obituary is available here.

Lillian Carolyn Midkiff was the youngest of four children, born on April 16, 1937, in Midland, Texas, to Naomi (née Mabry) and Tyson Midkiff. She spent her childhood in Midland, Rankin, and Kerrville, graduating from Kerrville’s Tivy High School in 1955. She especially enjoyed weekends on the family ranch with her father as a young girl, where she helped with the animals and swam with her cousins in the water tanks fed by windmill-operated pumps. Midkiff family reunions attended by seemingly hundreds of cousins were events that—years later—Carolyn, her husband, and children would greatly enjoy.

Carolyn attended one year at Hardin Simmons University, then transferred to Rice University in Houston, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1960. She met the love of her life, Jimmy Francis (Jim) Strange, at Rice, and, after some fitful starts, the two dated, became engaged, and married in Rankin on August 19, 1960.

Carolyn’s and Jim’s eldest children, Mary Elizabeth and James Riley, were born in Kerrville, while Jim taught at Shriner Institute and Carolyn taught high school geometry, her very favorite subject. The family then moved to New Haven, Connecticut, and on to various towns in New Jersey as Jim did graduate work. In these early years Carolyn worked at Esso Research and taught at a Montessori kindergarten. Katherine Alexandra and Joanna Carissa were born after the family moved to Tampa, Florida in 1972.

B.W. Ruffner, Honorary ASOR Trustee

It’s a little awkward for a volunteer archaeologist to be honoring someone like Carolyn, but I guess she was a volunteer too. The difference is that my contribution to the discipline is trivial compared to hers. Putting these thoughts on paper has given me an opportunity to remember her unassuming intelligence, her quiet service to ASOR and her family, and how much fun she was to be around.

I have seen only a fraction of Carolyn’s gifts to us. We met briefly at Sepphoris in 1994, then shared some meals at a kibbutz somewhere in Galilee when Jim was documenting some artifacts that were stored in a container there.  That was when I discovered how much fun she was to be around. A review of ASOR’s remembrances after Jim’s passing and of Carolyn’s recollections of her time with Vivian Bull at various digs over the years make it clear that she was an invaluable presence on Jim’s excavations, and gave her children their  first experience with archaeology.

We got more acquainted over the years at ASOR annual meetings. I always hoped to be at her table for Legacy Dinners. She usually arrived early so she could help the staff get set up and organized and was always available to “back up” when the staff was needed elsewhere.  She was a problem solver. A review of her obituary makes it clear that her gifts to the world, both in time and resources, extended far beyond us.  She clearly was committed to her church and to racial justice.  For the University of South Florida, she supported a chair in Racial Justice, the Department of Religious Studies and the UCF Botanical Gardens.

I got a more complete view of her intelligence, her quiet thoughtful effective unassuming personality –  and her sense of humor  – at Shikhin. By this time I wasn’t useful with a gufah and wheelbarrow so I slept late and went to the field with her when she served ”second breakfast.” My task was to deal with fever, diarrhea, nausea, dehydration and minor trauma. She took care of everything else.  If a tool or some unexpected supply was needed, she went looking for some way to solve the problem.  She knew who was sick, and who was homesick.  She knew where the volunteers could shop and dealt with financial or travel problems. She was an effective grandmother to them all.

Carolyn and other trustees at a reception at the James F. Strange Center in 2024

She kept things organized at the hotel. If there were problems with meals or facilities she resolved them.  She made sure things were set up for pottery reading and helped James register data and arrange lectures. I feel sure she helped James arrange our weekend tours too.  I suspect that what I saw was just a fraction of her contributions to Jim’s digs over the years.

She and I were a “senior generation” on the team.  We had time to share thoughts on the challenges of getting older, and the joys of being grandparents. We talked about our travels over the years, and the values and challenges of our religious denominations and our spiritual lives.

My last time with her was a painful reminder of her quiet self-effacing personality. When she collapsed at an ASOR Board dinner in May at Alexandria, she lay on the floor with us crowded around and said “Get back to your dinner.  I will be fine.  I’ve done this before.  Just leave me here on the floor”.  After several hours and IV fluids in the emergency room she recovered and returned to the hotel.  I have second guessed myself – and the emergency room – wondering if we missed some clues to the eminent disaster.  If she had any early symptoms, she probably ignored them.  I’m sure she told the ER “I don’t really need to be here.”

Susan Ackerman, ASOR Past President

Carolyn Midkiff Strange was an inspiration and brought a surge of passionate energy to every part of ASOR she touched. There was nothing that she thought ASOR could not do, or at least could not do better, if we threw out hearts and souls into it—and she used her huge heart and generous soul to lead by example. When we were evicted from our long-time office space at Boston University in 2017, she made the lead gift that we needed to buy a building that would become ASOR’s permanent home, and she inspired the rest of us to raise the funds to cover the rest of the purchase price, even when there were many (myself included) thought it could not be done. Indeed, I will never forget the aftermath of one Development Committee meeting, when the building funding looked grim, and Carolyn (short, sweet, diminutive Carolyn!) took me by the shoulders, shook me, and said, graciously but forcefully, “We can do this.” Well, she did, and the James F. Strange Center in Alexandria, VA— named in honor of her late husband and life partner, Jim  Strange—is a lasting tribute to her grit and determination. 

And she didn’t stop. She inspired our diversity, inclusion, and equity work, especially when the need became urgent in 2020, once again through her determination that “we can do this” and through her commitment to put her money where her heart and soul demanded: and so she established an endowment to fund excavation scholarships for BIPOC students and gave contributions to support other diversity initiatives. Her fund-raising passion also led her to be an enthusiastic member of the ASOR Development Committee and a moving force when it came to raising monies from others, especially donations to “ASOR 2025 – Strengthening our Foundation | Expanding Horizons – A Call to Action,” an initiative celebrating our 125th year as an organization.

Most recently, Carolyn has donated funding to establish the Mary Elizabeth Strange Endowment for Diaspora Heritage Educational Programming. Moreover, in 2014, Jim and Carolyn Strange jointly established ASOR’s Strange and Midkiff Familes Excavation Fellowships, designated to support the participation of ASOR members as volunteers or staff on excavation projects. The fund has now awarded 24 excavation fellowships, with a total of $46,500 disbursed to grantees.

Carolyn and Jim, each members of ASOR for over fifty years, each members of the ASOR Board of Trustees, and each generous donors, are testaments to what is best in ASOR—and an inspiration to us all.

Always a friendly face at the Annual Meeting, here is Carolyn welcoming people at the registration desk with Ann Sahlman.

Teddy Burgh, chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee and ASOR Trustee

My time with Carolyn goes far beyond obligatory cliches and customary superlatives. We didn’t spend a lot of one-on-one time together, but our brief conversations and interactions are memorable. It wasn’t that she said anything profound. There were no remarkable quotes. What resonated with me was Carolyn’s passion and sincerity. Both were palpable. After some of my previous experiences and interactions at ASOR conferences, as well as with various people on excavations, I am extremely sensitive when it comes to trust and sincerity. Many people know what to say and how to say it to present a specific persona or image. Yet, their true feelings can be just the opposite. When I met Carolyn, I will admit that I was guarded and cautious. However, I began to realize that she was for real. Her actions echoed her words. What was also impressive was Carolyn’s desire to learn and see change in the organization. She was extremely candid about what she didn’t understand and wanted to comprehend other points of view. She was open to having difficult conversations. Carolyn not only listened, but she heard what was being said and worked to bring about overdue changes in the organization.

Debora Heard, member of the DEI Committee and the William Leo Hansberry Society

Carolyn Strange was not only a highly-valued member of the DEI Committee, she modeled the self-journey each of us should be undertaking to make this world a better place for all of us.  She demonstrated that one could learn what one could not comprehend.  In the wake of the protests over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Carolyn found that she could not comprehend the racism, discrimination, privilege, social injustice, and inequality that the protesters were claiming was embedded in US society, but she wanted to know.  She was open to learning what she did not understand.  She would tell anyone who would listen that reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist opened her eyes and changed her life.  Yet, one book could not teach her all that was to know, so every month at our DEI meetings, she would show us what new book she was reading dealing with topics like the perpetuation of racism within the church, social inequality, and systemic forms of racism and discrimination.  Carolyn also understood that knowledge alone does not produce change.  She took that next step that many neglect.  She asked, “What can I do?” and she spent the rest of her life committed to ways to answer that question.

Carolyn hosted a reception for members of the William Leo Hansberry Society at the Annual Meeting in Chicago in 2023.

The first part of her action plan was education.  While Carolyn always downplayed her role in archaeology, often saying, “I’m not a scholar,” her modesty did not extend to giving her opinion.  In fact, one of Carolyn’s best qualities was her direct, straightforwardness; she was a “truth teller.”  As a result, exposing others to the belief-shattering knowledge that she was acquiring was not always easy for her listeners to receive, so she bought books to give in the hopes that the recipients would receive a similar revelation and join her in the work of changing minds and, more importantly, changing society, which leads to the second part of her action plan which was “action.”

Carolyn believed that it was a responsibility as a person, and also as a Christian, to DO all that she could to effect positive change for all people.  As a member of ASOR’s Board of Trustees and DEI Committee, she actively worked to ASOR toward greater diversity and inclusivity in its values, its membership, and its impact on the research and disciplines under its purview.  She also funded initiatives that would help ASOR begin its own journey of transformation and evolution.

Carolyn Strange was a person who gave her whole heart to what she believed, and she truly believed in diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, fairness, and justice.  The DEI Committee will sorely miss her, but her contributions to the committee and on ASOR, at large, are a part of her legacy that must be continued.  As long as we continue in the work to which she dedicated the last years of her life and as long as we commit ourselves to our own uncomfortable journeys of seeking to understand the lived lives of people of different backgrounds than ourselves and doing the work to improve the lives for all of humanity in whatever small way that we can, we will keep Carolyn Strange and her legacy alive.

Kate Larson and Julia Troche, co-chairs of ASOR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.

Carolyn and her son, James R. Strange at the 2021 Annual Meeting.

Among Carolyn’s many legacies to ASOR is her unwavering commitment to building a more inclusive and equitable field of archaeology and study of the ancient world. She pushed herself and others to confront uncomfortable histories through self-education and intentional reflection. She also didn’t hesitate to step forward as a lead donor on numerous diversity initiatives, among them ASOR’s BIPOC fieldwork scholarships that have enabled 13 black, indigenous, and people of color to participate in archaeological excavations since 2022. This sort of financial and institutional support helps ensure those from a wider range of backgrounds, lived experiences, and perspectives can continue to broaden and invigorate our field.

Carolyn was an inaugural member of ASOR’s DEI Committee when it was established as a standing committee by the Board of Trustees in 2021. She provided moral accountability and clarity to the committee from day one, entering all conversations with humility and grace. Her encouragement, calm but strong presence, unwavering support of the work of the committee, and commitment to inclusion permeated our work. She never hesitated to recommend a book, share her own journey, and embrace humility. She is missed profoundly.

Eric and Carol Meyers, ASOR Trustees

Carolyn Strange was a dear friend over the course of more than fifty years. From the early 1970’s to the early 1980’s, she and her family sank deep roots with the Meyerses in the Upper Galilee, and later in the Lower Galilee at Sepphoris near Nazareth.

Jim and Carolyn Strange at Sepphoris.

Carolyn never took the label of being a Galilean lightly: it was her heritage and one that fueled her dedication to inclusivity, tolerance, and commitment to those in need. In recent years she especially devoted time and attention to ASOR and the Albright where she had spent so many  years. Her efforts and contributions have enabled both to prosper and grow in a time of great challenge for the Middle East.

In many ways these past years she has enjoyed new friends and new ties that have bound her to the lives of all sorts of individuals, not only to us Galileans but to ASOR and AIAR types from all over the US and globe. And she won their hearts through her charm and straightforward talk.

She has left a legacy, and we all celebrate it.  She will always  be in our hearts and memories.

Yehi shema mevorekhet, may her name be for a blessing,