Carol Everly Floyd, nee Carol Rae Everly, passed away while in hospice care at Memorial Hospital on June 24, 2025. The daughter of Ray and Evelyn (Paider) Everly, she was born on November 11, 1946, and spent her childhood in Cicero, Illinois.

She graduated from Knox College in 1968 with a B.A. in Political Science and an in 1971 completed an M.A. in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the same university. An outstanding academic scholar, Dr. Floyd was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and National Science Foundation Trainee.

Dr. Floyd had served as a Special Assistant to the Provost, University of Illinois at Springfield, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Educational Administration at Illinois State University.  Also, she had served as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the Illinois Board of Regents.  At the University of Illinois, she coordinated academic planning and provided staff support for faculty committees.

Dr. Floyd published two ASHE-ERIC (Association for the Study of Higher Education-Education Research Report) monographs, review essays in the Review of Higher Education and a number of other articles and essays. Her research interests included faculty participation in campus decision making, institutional planning, state planning, leadership, policy history and cultural diversity. She served on the editorial boards of the Review of Higher Education, the ASHE-ERIC Report Series and the ASHE Reader Series. She was a member of the ASHE Board of Directors and served as Board Budget Chair. She served four years as chair of the ASHE Publications Committee.  Other ASHE service included: Paper/proposal referee for Annual Meetings; Ethnic Participation Committee; Long-Range Budget Planning Committee, 1984-85; Nominations Committee, 1986--87; and Co-Chair, Focused Dialogues Section, 1989 Annual Meeting. Dr. Floyd was a member of the steering committee for the Society for College and University Planning's academic planning section (also Associate Chair) and of the Publications Advisory Committee. She served four years as associate editor for Planning for Higher Education.  She was a board member of the UU Humanist Association and an essay of her was published in the Journal of Religious Humanism.

In 1971, she married fellow Knox College graduate Lovick Stevens "Steve' Floyd.  Her husband preceded her in death in 1994. She leaves behind brother- and sister-in-law, John and Diane Floyd and two nephews, Joseph and Philip Floyd.

Cremation rites will be accorded by the Vancil-Murphy Funeral Home and a Celebration of Life ceremony will be held at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Saturday, September 6 at 2 pm, followed by a reception at the church.