Carol Toussaint

MADISON - Carol Toussaint passed away quietly on Thanksgiving morning, November 27, 2025, at the age of 96. She was a prominent figure in the Madison community known for the diverse roles in which she served over the decades.

Carol came to Madison from a small town in northern Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her degree in journalism and wrote for the Daily Cardinal. She also fell in love with the city. A job writing for a magazine in Iowa lured her away for a year before returning to Madison. While working a new job in Madison, she met and married John Toussaint, a neurology resident, and started a family. The family left Madison as John began his medical career but returned for good a few years later. Once back, Carol embarked on a lifetime of community involvement, which didn’t necessarily involve a paycheck but always had an impact. She also bought two season tickets to Badger football.

An elementary school lesson in leadership and civics sparked an intense desire to “be involved”. For her, joining the League of Women Voters was a meaningful way to contribute to the community, and Carol’s commitment to the League led her to become state president and a national vice president. Related activities included helping to organize the 1976 presidential candidate debate, participating in a re-examination of the Federalist Papers and preparing convention delegates for a review of Hawaii’s constitution.

Ever-expanding community participation meant Carol attended council meetings, legislative debates and Supreme Court hearings; served on committees, commissions, panels and boards; consulted, counseled and advised; wrote feasibility studies and evaluations and then helped implement the recommendations; worked with businesses, foundations and non-profit organizations, often leading them on an interim basis; published a literary magazine; ran the Vantage Point speaker series; and was volunteered by her sons to be a “room mother” (again and again).

The arts held a special place in Carol’s heart. Like many, she and John were patrons of various arts organizations, especially those related to music, but Carol’s involvement went beyond financial support. As deputy director of a state-funded examination of the economic impact of the arts in Wisconsin, she helped author its final report. The experience instilled the wider importance of art to a community and deepened her commitment to help. When a resignation created a void in leadership at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, she stepped in as the acting executive director. Carol was twice appointed to the Madison Cultural Arts District (MCAD) board, first by the Madison mayor and later by the Dane County executive, and she was the board chair when MCAD provided critical input into the needs, uses and resident companies as Overture Center came into existence. At the national level, she served on the President’s Advisory Council on the Arts and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Foundations and non-profit organizations formed the key pillar of Carol’s consulting career. She provided operational guidance and governance advice to a variety of organizations ranging from the Madison Community Foundation to HospiceCare (now Agrace), and numerous foundations. Other roles included the Wisconsin History Foundation board, the Rotary International Foundation’s Permanent Fund Committee and an interim assignment as executive director of the Alliant Energy Foundation.

This diversity of experience and knowledge became a strength, and that strength created opportunities. Sometimes, those chances led her to “break the glass ceiling” and become “the first woman to serve as…”: moderator of her church board, a board member of Wisconsin Power & Light (now Alliant Energy), a governor’s cabinet-level appointee in Wisconsin state government and president of the Rotary Club of Madison (a.k.a “Downtown Rotary”). Carol was quick to downplay these remarkable roles and attribute them to simply being prepared and in the right place when the time came.

Carol garnered various awards over the years, including special recognition from the International Women’s Forum, the Madison YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the Women in Communications Writer’s Cup, The Business Forum’s first ATHENA Award, Downtown Rotary’s Manfred Swarsensky Humanitarian Award and an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Edgewood College.

Many were inspired by Carol to achieve their own greatness, and she was quick to support them with advice, guidance, counsel and encouragement. She possessed a boundless drive to do for others and in doing so helped people to be their best. Those who knew her often used words like leader, advocate, mentor, pioneer, role model, friend, and, of course, mom.

Away from her “career,” Carol enjoyed spending time with family and friends who she supported with the same fervor that she supported the community. She fearlessly embraced travel, whether driving across the United States or Europe with her husband and young sons, or joining and sometimes leading tours to destinations like Japan, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Thailand and Finland. With John, she participated in Earthwatch expeditions to Switzerland, England, Estonia and Easter Island. When at home, she enjoyed attending plays, musical performances and fundraising events; playing English handbells at their church; and watching football. Always football.

Carol is survived by a brother, Tom; sons, Gregory and Todd and their respective families, which include three granddaughters, seven great-grandchildren and four granddogs; and numerous nieces and nephews and their families. She was preceded in death by her parents; three siblings; and John, her husband of more than 70 years.

A memorial service will be held at FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, 1609 University Ave., Madison, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 24, 2026.

In lieu of flowers, gifts in Carol’s memory may be made payable to the 'UW Foundation' with a note to direct as a tribute to the "132510031 - Carol Toussaint Fund for the Center for Journalism Ethics." Mail to UW Foundation, US Bank Lockbox Box 78807, Milwaukee, WI 53278-8807. Gifts can also be made online at <https://supportuw.org/giveto/caroltoussaintfund>.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson Fitchburg

Funeral & Cremation Care

2950 Chapel Valley Road

(608) 442-5002