Dr. Carol Everly Floyd passed away while in hospice care at Memorial Hospital on June 24, 2025. She was born on Nov. 11, 1946, and spent her childhood in Cicero.
She graduated from Knox College in 1968 and earned a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Carol excelled in the academic environment and she had served as a special assistant to the provost, an adjunct sssociate professor of educational administration and the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at various universities.
In 1971, she married fellow Knox College graduate Lovick Stevens “Steve’ Floyd. That marriage was the bedrock of her happiness. Sadly, her husband preceded her in death in 1994.
Carol marched to the beat of her own drummer. We remember her as a freethinker, a student of politics, a lover of good food and intelligent company. She loved to chat, spar and debate. Carol made a home within diverse groups including the Abraham Lincoln UU Congregation, the American Humanist Society and MENSA and inspired great affection and loyalty.
Frugal with herself, she generously supported those institutions that had meant so much to her, but characteristically never called attention to herself.
Her cremated remains are now interred at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Springfield, next to her beloved husband.
-Rev. Martin Woulfe
This article appears in January 1-7, 2026.
