Caroline Marie Kuhfahl's Obituary
It is with great sorrow that we announce the passing of Caroline Marie Kuhfahl, 60 of Ashburn, Virginia. Caroline was surrounded by her beloved family and left this world peacefully on Saturday August 27, 2022, in Falls Church, Virginia, after a courageous battle with Lymphoma.
Caroline was born on November 25, 1961 to Rejane Soucy and James Goldfrank in Washington, D.C. Fourteen months later her sister Catherine joined the family, and the two girls grew up together joined at the hip in most everything they did at home in Adelphi, Maryland. Many happy years were spent enjoying their favorite activities of singing together, cooking, camping, swimming and spending time with their French-Canadian family both in the US and in Canada. Caroline’s early years in a vibrant home environment nurtured within her a love of music, appreciation of international foods and cultures, nature, and a deep connection to the French language of her mother. As a young girl, Caroline’s interest in nature was already evident in her love of the outdoors and her passion for geology, collecting and polishing rocks and stones of all kinds. She loved the family camping trips, long family walks, hikes, and was always interested in exploring plant and animal life in every setting.
In 1976 the family moved to Reston, Virginia, where Caroline and Catherine attended Herndon High School and made many life-long friends. Caroline joined the Explorer’s Club and furthered her interest in the outdoors by hiking, rock climbing, and camping. She also explored her love of dance through the Danish American Exchange under Barbara Harding and the Old Dominion Dancers. Caroline was well known and liked and these were very happy years for her.
Upon Graduation from Herndon High School in 1979, Caroline’s courage and spirit of adventure led her to leave home to attend the Institute de tourism et d’hotellerie du Quebec College in Montreal, where she completed her degree completely in the French language. As part of her studies, Caroline was selected for an internship for the Societe Energie Baie James where she worked in northern Quebec and was able to experience the vast nature, including the Northern Lights. These experiences stayed with Caroline for the remainder of her life and shaped her views of the world.
After graduating college in 1983, Caroline entered the high-tech industry, working for AFIPS helping produce the National Computer Conference where she enjoyed traveling to large cities in the US and helping people. She joined SPOT Image in 1986, a branch of the French Space Agency which ran SPOT (Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre), a high-resolution Earth-imaging satellite system operating from space. Caroline very much enjoyed working around technology and being able to use her French and Spanish skills to help scientists from all over the world as part of her customer service role. This job is also where she met Robert Kuhfahl in 1987, who she later married. In 1988, she joined Landsat to continue the Remote Sensing Customer Service role that she so much enjoyed.
Ever up for an adventure, Caroline was excited to take scuba lessons so she could join Bob on scuba trips. They enjoyed diving in Hawaii during their honeymoon as well as Grand Cayman, St. Croix, Jamaica, Cozumel, and various sites in Florida and Florida Keys. At this point Caroline was becoming the matriarch of her developing family. On New Year’s Eve 1992, Caroline gave birth to her first child, Justin. A few years later came Kyle in 1996. During these years, the passion for being in the great outdoors was satisfied by boating and camping at Lake Anna most weekends of the year with her brother-in-law and his wife, Scott and Alicia and their growing family as well as visiting with Bob’s parents in Mineral VA. She loved sharing her Explorers training with the kids and giving them outdoors skills they can now pass on. During these early boat years Caroline demonstrated her strong athletic capabilities by learning water skiing and becoming a great slalom skier. In 1998, Bob & Caroline moved from the townhouse in Bowie, MD to a house in Ashburn, VA large enough to host family events that she longed for and to build the deck of their dreams. In 2000, Caroline’s wishes for a baby girl came true when Michelle was born. Quickly the family became her priority and in 2002 she changed roles to teaching technology at Hutchinson Elementary School so she could have more time to focus on building a strong family. Her passion for teaching and sharing was blissfully merged with helping children. Caroline thoroughly enjoyed working with school children and being a technical leader helping the school, but her favorite part of the job was that it allowed her to be at home with her kids during summer breaks, holidays, and snow days. Although family time and trips were plentiful, the pinnacle trip was in 2012 after the kids completed their dive training, the family celebrated by going to the Bahamas for their ‘checkout’ dives. A week at Atlantis was followed by a week with Stuarts Cove, diving a variety of incredible reef walls and shipwrecks. The week was capped by even Michelle at 12 years old doing the shark dive with everyone. Caroline was so proud of her little girl.
As the family grew so did Caroline’s passions for the great outdoors. She developed a special interest in pollinators and making some small contribution to protecting our world. Her feelings intensified as she learned more about the threat of extinction of Monarch butterflies, recognizing them as one of the key canary-in-the-coal-mine species. Her passion for learning and teaching others about Monarchs became legendary. Caroline worked tirelessly to build gardens and provide milkweed as far and wide as she could. Caroline spent untold hours searching milkweed patches for eggs that she could bring into the house and nurture until the metamorphosis had completed and the butterfly was ready to start its leg in the journey. When the butterflies were healthy and ready to be set free, Caroline would make a spectacle of the event, gathering members of the community to participate. Her infectious passion inspired many people to learn the process from her, and many people whom she taught continue to this day nurturing eggs into healthy butterflies and planting milkweed.
During these years Caroline continued to grow the desire to help save the world and find ways to make an impact. A key passion over the years was donating blood and she rarely missed a chance to talk about it with folks she met, always educating and encouraging others to do the same. Caroline donated blood and platelets frequently and at one point was invited to a lunch with an Area Director to thank her for the large number of donations.
Caroline’s impact on those around her also extended to her sister Catherine and her family. The close relationship Caroline enjoyed with her niece and nephews was deeply meaningful and was developed over many years of shared holidays and family vacations. As the children grew up, “Aunt Caroline” remained a fixture in their lives, never failing to reach out, show love, and support and maintain strong bonds. While she was hospitalized and undergoing chemotherapy, she proudly watched her niece Rebecca’s entire college graduation ceremony through Face Time - she was determined to be present even in such difficult circumstances. Caroline was a deeply caring sister and rarely missed a day of communicating with Catherine even during her toughest moments of chemotherapy.
Caroline’s passion for making an impact also involved her community; She helped the Ashburn Farm community build pollinator gardens, and led classes about Monarchs and how to find and raise them. Her efforts in Ashburn Farm included spending untold hours working with County and Community officials to designate an area in the community as a wild meadow. This included signage to educate the community and help landscapers understand it was to be left alone. Caroline’s efforts led not only to an untold number of people being able to witness a vast array of wildlife, but also it provided an expanse of milkweed that could grow and support countless Monarchs on their journeys. Another means of sharing her passion for nature was through her love of wildlife photography. Caroline possessed a unique talent for capturing images and moments of beauty in nature and she shared these images generously with her friends and family.
Caroline’s social nature led her to work part-time for Wine Styles in South Riding, VA. Caroline was able to spend a few evenings a week after school learning about wine and helping customers enjoy a relaxed evening, often with great local music. As with everywhere she went, she made life-long friends that she very much cherished. This warm welcoming nature led Caroline to make friends with everyone she met, even if just for a few minutes. These connections included hikers on the Appalachian Trail, colleagues, neighbors, the kids she taught and even people she met in the grocery store. She bonded with and cared deeply for everyone.
In 2015 as her kids grew and needed her help less often, Caroline left the school system and began to provide conference services to Lansdowne Resort and enjoyed the ability to merge her customer service skills with her social skills, forming many bonds with people from all over the country. Caroline was instrumental in helping the resort establish a pollinator garden, both to help all pollinators but also to help guests learn about pollinators and the threats they face. This timeframe also brought the challenges of assisting her mother with her transition to assisted living. Over the next 5 years until her mother’s passing, Caroline devoted countless hours to managing her care and her finances. She skillfully managed her affairs and developed strong bonds with her mother’s friends and community in Nashville, TN.
Caroline had the opportunity to re-enter the high-tech world and joined MVM Corp as the Office Manager in 2017. This opportunity really gave Caroline the opportunity to exercise her social nature as she thrived in helping to run the organization. Like everywhere else, she made so many deep personal connections in the process.
In 2021 with the kids now grown and gone, Caroline and Bob had the opportunity to spend many weekends hiking and camping along the Appalachian Trail. Caroline’s favorite place to go was at G.R. Thompson Wildlife Management Area, where she found many new friends while doing things such as pulling Garlic Mustard, an invasive species. Caroline spent most weekends in the spring walking the trails, pulling weeds, relishing in the Trillium, and enjoying all the new friends she was meeting. Due to her outgoing nature and genuine interest and care for others, Caroline rarely met a person that did not become a life-long friend.
In her last year, Caroline took on some of the greatest adventures and challenges of her entire life. Bob encouraged her to take a leap and travel around the country where she visited family and dear friends, reached out to old ones, and of course made countless new ones. Together they camped and hiked in various National Parks such as Rainier, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone. During Thanksgiving they were in San Diego where the kids joined them in walks on the beach and enjoyed great meals together. She then took a girl’s trip with Michelle to Joshua Tree National Park, before spending Christmas with more friends and family in Tucson, AZ.
Caroline’s life-long pursuit of building a strong family was wonderfully successful;. She raised three outstanding individuals who exemplify the traits that Caroline was known for. Anyone who knew her can testify to the pride with which she shared their accomplishments and loved showing off their pictures. .
Caroline was planning a 60th birthday celebration in the mountains of Spain with family in September and the hope of expanding her love of people, cultures and nature buoyed her energy and spirits throughout her cancer treatment. Her boundless energy, passion for life, people and the beauty of the Earth kept her continuously engaged with the world around her and she was filled with plans and dreams which were cut short when the cancer returned and so quickly took her from this life. Caroline’s spirit and passions are kept alive by the children she molded, the always growing number of Monarch butterflies that she is directly and indirectly responsible for helping along, the countless number of lives she saved by donating blood and platelets, and the massive number of people that she inspired to follow in her footsteps.
Caroline is survived by her loving husband Robert Kuhfahl, sons Justin Kuhfahl and Kyle Kuhfahl, daughter Michelle Kuhfahl, sister Catherine Fair, brother-in law Larry Barkman, brother-in-law Eric Oganessoff, Brother-in-law Scott Kuhfahl, Sister-in-law Alicia Kuhfahl, her niece's Alexis Oganessoff, Rebecca Dahlinger, and Gabrielle Kuhfahl, and her nephews Brandon Kuhfahl, Ethan Fair, Christopher Dahlinger, Nicholas Oganessoff, and Stefan Oganessoff.
The family invites you to join them in a Celebration of Life to be held on Saturday October 15, 2022. The event begins at 4:00 PM, with fellowship time following until 9 PM. The event will be at The Lake House, 11450 Baron Cameron Avenue, Reston, Virginia 20190
In lieu of flowers please consider making a memorial donation in Caroline’s honor to one of these organizations that she gave so much of her life to:
● Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy
● Monarch Watch Organization
● Your local blood donation facility
Online condolences may be made to the family at www.loudounfuneralchapel.com
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