Carole Jeanne (Duprey) Ackerman

Carole Jeanne Duprey Ackerman passed peacefully Sunday December 17, 2023. She was born September 22, 1946, in Greenfield, Massachusetts, to the late William l. and Eva M. (St. Lawrence) Duprey.

Carole was preceded in death by her brother Lawrence W. Duprey.

She is survived by her husband of 51 years Robert W. Ackerman, her twin sister Joan Marie Avonti (Southwick, MA), her daughters Aryn Elizabeth Ackerman and Robyn Eve (wife Brandy Ackerman), and four grandchildren, Delaney and Andrew Cranston, and Annie and Luke Perillo.

Carole graduated from Westfield, MA High School and Western Massachusetts School of Nursing. She was a pediatric staff nurse at Winchester Hospital in Massachusetts. After moving to the Hershey are in 1983, Carole volunteered at the Hershey Medical Center and the Hershey Museum before becoming an employee at the Museum responsible for Docent training and scheduling. While working at the Museum, Carole collaborated with Mary Houts and Pamela Whitenack in the preparation of their book, Images of America-Hershey.

A life-time member of the Girl Scouts USA, Carole distinguished herself as a Brownie, Junior, Cadette and Senior Girl Scout troop leader. She was a service team member, day camp director, neighborhood delegate, and a member of the Camp Furnace Hills site team, Foxfire House team and Outdoor Ed team. She was also a Green Circle demonstrator, chair of the campsite rep program and a Foxfire House site aid.

In 1988 Carole became a GSUSA Certified Master Trainer and developed many camp site training programs still in use today. In 1996, Carole was awarded the Girl Scout Thanks Badge, the highest honor in Girl Scouts. It honors a registered adult Girl Scout whose ongoing commitment, leadership and service have had an exceptional, measurable impact on meeting the mission-delivery goals and priorities of the entire council or entire Girl Scout Movement.

Two of her proudest moments in Girl Scouts were in 2003 when Carole directed Bonnets and Battlefields, a Girl Scout Wider Opportunity at Gettysburg College, attended by girls from across the United States, which celebrated the role of women in the Civil War; and in 2006 when she directed Catch the Foxfire Spirit at Foxfire House in Camp Furnace Hills where girls from all over were allowed to live for 10 days as members of families from the 1800’s. For both these Wider Opportunities, Carole assembled the team of volunteers, arranged and booked special events and trips during the 10 days, and managed all aspects of planning and execution of these national Girl Scout events.

To celebrate Carole’s many contributions to Girl Scouts, her family, in cooperation with the Girl Scouts in the Heart of PA, is reconstructing the 18th century barn at Foxfire House destroyed in the hurricane of 2017 and rededicating it in Carole’s memory.

A viewing will be held Thursday December 21, 2023, at Rothermel-Finkenbinder Funeral Home and Crematory. 25 West Pine Street, Palmyra, PA 17078. Starting at 9:30 AM with services to follow at 11:30 AM.

Graveside services will be at Hershey Cemetery.

Memories and condolences may be shared at www.finkenbinderfamily.com

Arrangements entrusted to Rothermel-Finkenbinder Funeral Home & Crematory Inc.