Former Sonoma State University, Santa Rosa Junior College administrator Carroll Mjelde dies at 82

Carroll Mjelde, a lifelong educator who came to the former Sonoma State College in 1968 and worked variously as a professor, dean and administrator, died Oct. 19 in San Diego County.

Mjelde, who also rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve and accepted an invitation by the late Henry Trione to join the board of Empire College, was 82.

He and his wife, Iris, met at what is now Sonoma State University and married in 1988 at Russian River Vineyards. They left Sonoma County about 20 years ago for Carlsbad and a stint in Arizona.

A native of Minnesota who grew up in Seattle, Mjelde had taught school in Seattle and worked as an administrator at both the University at Buffalo and Sacramento State College when he joined the staff at Sonoma State College. He was a dean when late President Peter Diamandopoulos named him acting vice president for Administrative Affairs and Educational Services in 1977.

Mjelde worked in a variety of capacities at the college in Rohnert Park until 1988. He then moved to Santa Rosa Junior College to become its dean of instruction, a position he held for about two years.

He accepted an invitation to become an administrator in the Long Beach offices of the chancellor of the California State University and worked there until 1995, then retired. Following retirement from the state college system, he served for several years as the state prisons’ director of education.

Mjelde earned both a master’s degree in education and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Washington. His long parallel career in the Navy Reserve included commanding the supply corps reserve unit in Alameda.

“He was just a warm, caring individual,” Iris Mjelde said. “He was a very private person also.”

His passing from multiple myeloma cancer came within a week of the death of a son, Michael Mjelde of Santa Rosa, also from cancer.

In addition to his wife, Carroll Mjelde is survived by daughter Heidi Waitley of San Diego and son Chris Mjelde of Santa Barbara; stepchildren Yvette Brown of San Francisco, Kevin Fickert of San Diego and Sean Fickert of Chandler, Ariz.; 19 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Monday at El Camino Memorial Mortuary in Encinitas. Interment will be at Miramar National Cemetery.