Phyllis Carlson, 92, of Overland Park, Kan., died May 29, 2023. She was born Aug. 22, 1930, in Upland, Calif., to Laona Pearl Book Hershey and Charles Hershey.

Shaped by her baptism in the Brethren in Christ church, she enrolled at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, where she met Bob Carlson. In 1953 she married Bob, graduated with a degree in education and started her first teaching job. She then made the difficult decision to abandon the Brethren head covering and conservative attire. In 1959 the young family, with two children, moved to the District of Columbia, where Bob was chaplain at a youth residential center. Then the family moved to Newton, Kan., where Bob was the associate pastor at Bethel College Mennonite Church in North Newton. After taking early motherhood in stride, her creative and instructive spirit pulled her back to the classroom. She earned a master’s degree in educational psychology from Wichita State University in 1969. 

In the ’60s and ’70s she was deeply stirred by the women’s movement. Her energy for equality drove her to lead her sixth-grade class in a protest against gender discrimination that nearly got her fired, but her petition to allow girls to sign up for shop class and boys for home economics was successful. In Newton, she created a women’s investing club and years later forged a community for women by starting a lunch group at Rainbow Mennonite Church in Kansas City. A charismatic and inventive teacher, she taught fifth and sixth grades in the Newton public schools for 18 years and was the first Newton teacher to use a computer in the classroom. In 1991 she received the “woman of the year” education award in The Newton Kansan. 

At Bethel College Mennonite Church she was the first woman chair of the congregation. She also served on the Bethel College Board of Directors for 12 years.

In 1991 Phyllis and Bob moved to Tokyo, Japan, where for four years she taught sixth grade at Nishimachi International School. In 1997 they moved to Overland Park. In retirement, she found a spiritual home at Rainbow, served on church committees, led small groups, taught writing classes at Lansing Correctional Facility and was immersed in her community.

Artistically, spiritually and physically active throughout her life, she was a skilled wheat weaver and quilter, won a wind-surfing contest, sailed, biked across Kansas and climbed Mount Fuji. She and Bob traveled to 47 states and over 18 countries. She defined herself as “always a searcher.”

She is survived by her husband; children Steve Carlson, Chris Ashby and Beth Carlson; five grandchildren; and son-in-law Shawn Ashby.