Carol Rebecca Hood's Obituary
Obituary
Carol Rebecca Hood was born Carol Bush in Villa Rica, Georgia to Juanita and John Bush on November 15, 1951 and died January 3, 2014, at the age of 63. She attended David Lipscomb College on an academic scholarship and majored both in English and biology. There she met Michael Hood and married at the age of 19. Two years later she had Matthew Hood, her first child who is a helicopter mechanic and pilot in West Palm Beach.After college she worked for Dr. Robert L. Summitt at the Child Development Center growing tissue cultures and doing chromosome analyses while Michael attended UT medical school in Memphis. After two years she taught English at White Haven Elementary School. Michael accepted a residency in family practice and the family moved to Bristol, Virginia. While there, she had Laura who is now Laura Poland. Quillen Medical School tried to start a genetics lab and after many months they were unsuccessful at growing tissue cultures. Carol was invited to help the lab become successful and after six months she had the tissue cultures growing and trained the staff to read and process the chromosomes. After that she decided she wanted to go to veterinary school and with the letters of recommendation from Dr. Summitt and Quillen Medical School she was successful at obtaining a position. Hence the family sought to move closer to the Veterinary School in Knoxville. Newport was only a temporary stopover for the family, but Michael and Carol fell in love with the area and put down strong roots. While attending the Veterinary School she won the Feline Practioner Award for being the best student with cats. She opened her office on Hedrick Drive and began a long and successful veterinary practice. During that time she revived the PTA at Newport Grammar School, she became president of Natural Bridge Ruritan Club and had the idea of starting a Grad Fest Celebration for local high school graduates. She also began Habitat For Humanity in Cocke County and as its president. she helped build many houses. She also was a Girl Scout leader with Cynthia Woods Robinson and helped Michael with many of the outings where the two of them took scouts on backpacking trips. Both Michael and Carol became pilots and they flew their Cherokee Six on many adventures on ski trips and scuba diving trips as well as to Chicago and New York. They were also passionate about sailing. They were fortunate to have had two sailboats and the current boat is Godot, which is in a slip in Oriental, North Carolina. They have sailed the Florida Keys, the Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, the Chesapeake and Maine many times and have done much of the inland waterway. Both Michael and Carol were advance open water and deep divers but Carol was certified as a rescue diver, equipment diver, naturalist diver and night diver. Carol learned to dive before she could swim and afterward became an excellent swimmer. Of all the activities the couple enjoyed, backpacking and hiking were their favorites and Carol put her botany to use and knew all the woodland wild flowers in their colloquial and Latin names. She spent time drawing them and most recently had begun to learn colored pencil drawing to beautiful effect. She sold her practice to Dr. Sandra O'Conner after being asked to euthanize large numbers of animals at the local shelter. She felt a calling to rescue animals on a large scale and became the director of the shelter in Newport. While there she took a low animal save rate and turned it into a very high one. She did this with the help of the Friends of the Animal Shelter and the shelter's extremely hard working staff. She helped fund the animal shelter by giving up her salary during the third year and then by doing low cost spays and neuters for extra revenue. She also began Beat the Heat, an effort that has done 2000 or more spays and neuters at a low cost and picks up and delivers animals for folks that can't afford it otherwise. It operates out of Cedarwood, her old office which Dr. O'Connor moved from. Because of her service she received the Distinguished International Academy of Noble Achievement Award (DIANA) presented by the collegiate service organization, Epsilon Sigma Alpha International. This is an award presented to women who have according to ESA "unselfishly given of themselves to a remarkable degree in some area of service which benefits others; women who exemplify in their daily lives the wholesome and inspiring qualities of love faith and courage".Carol Hood and her husband were humanists. As humanists they supported all religious groups in the county, the arts, and service groups. They saw to the care and nurturing of children, pets and the citizens of Cocke County. They both felt these people to be the finest people in Tennessee and Tennesseans, the finest people in the country. Carol Hood leaves behind her husband Michael, her daughter Laura Poland, Laura's husband Gene and four grandchildren: Calvin, Rahli, Silas and Genevieve. She also leaves behind Matthew and Joslyn Hood in Orlando, Florida as well as her granddaughter, Jackson and a soon-to-be born grandchild Matthew and Joshlyn are expecting. She also held dear Ain Eccles, who is at Parsons Art School in New York City and Joshua Spiegel, grandchildren by marriage. She was loved and adored by them all. She especially was loved by Calvin, whom she took to the NASTAR nationals for the last two years where he won his age group as a snowboarder racer. Both Beat the Heat and Friends of the Animal Shelter have a 5013C and the family would prefer that donations be made to these two organizations in lieu of flowers. A memorial service will be held at First Baptist Church at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. Brown Funeral Home is honored to serve the Hood family.
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