Douglas Ray Carder

Douglas Ray Carder, 75, of Crooksville passed away on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 surrounded by his family at Morrison House (Genesis Hospice Care) after a brief illness.

Dad is survived by his wife of 52 years, Susan (Boersma) Carder, his five children: Elizabeth (Joshua) Caton, Timothy (Jennifer) Carder, Theresa (Gabriel) Martinez, Dorothy (Nicholas) Varrasso, and Douglas (Stephanie) Carder; and his 21 grandchildren: Violet, Andrew, Elaine, Craig, Susanna, Matthew, Thomas and Peter Caton; Kamryn, Sasha and Franklin Carder; Joaquin, Michael, Marisabel, Joseph, Xavier and Henry Martinez; and Sarah, Michael, Josephine and John Carder.

Dad is preceded in death by his step-father, Herbert Woody, his father-in-law, Robert Boersma, his mother-in-law, Dorothy (Lemke) Boersma, his sister-in-law, Margaret (Boersma) Hadley and his step-mother-in-law, Betty Boersma.

Dad was born on September 10, 1949 in Parkersburg, West Virginia to the late Raymond Carder, Jr. and Marilyn (Davenport) Carder-Woody. He grew up with his younger sister, Jacquelyn Ruth (John) Soltis in Williamstown, and later attended West Virginia University in Morgantown on a cross country and track scholarship.

While in college, Mom and Dad met at Marietta Memorial Hospital, where Mom was a radiologic technologist and Dad went in for a checkup following a bad car accident a year earlier.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics & Math Education, Mom and Dad got married at St. Mary Church in Marietta on October 21, 1972. They moved to Huntington, West Virginia where Dad worked at C&P Telephone Company. After being in Huntington for a year, they returned to Marietta where Dad was able to teach and coach his love of cross country and track.

In 1976, they had their first daughter followed by a son in 1977. In 1979 they welcomed their second daughter and this was also the year they moved to Crooksville, Ohio and where they still live today. The 80’s brought their last two children – their third daughter in 1981 and their second son in 1989.

Dad always provided for his family, while Mom was able to stay at home with their children until the youngest daughter was in grade school and she began work at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Zanesville, Ohio. Some of the places that Dad worked were Time Warner Cable (Columbus), Starkey Insurance (Somerset, Ohio) and Crooksville High School. During the years that Mom and Dad were also raising a family, Dad also provided his time to volunteer at PerCo leading as their Board President for a timeframe.

Our dad was a gifted athlete, and instilled endurance running in each of his children. He won the Athens (Ohio) marathon in 1972 with a time of 2:30.43. He also instilled a strong work ethic and character by working alongside each of us while we worked our ad sales route for many years, being our alarm clock (and our snooze button) on early Sunday mornings.

After retiring in 2016, Dad still worked providing home and business inspections, but he also made time to golf with his sons, visit his children as their families grew and moved to different places, and together Mom and Dad attended all of the activities that they could of their grandchildren.

Dad was always upbeat and logical, and could take being razzed like the best of them. He was humble and never bragged about his strengths or accomplishments, and he would always say how proud he was of each of his children, and gave all of the credit to our mom.

Family and friends are welcome during visiting hours at Goebel Funeral Home, 36 N. Buckeye Street in Crooksville, on Monday, April 7 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., concluding with a Rosary being prayed at 7:45 p.m. A funeral mass will be held at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, 309 N. Main Street in New Lexington, on Tuesday, April 8 at 10:00 a.m. with burial services to follow at St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery, 12819 Twp. Road 1206 NE in Crooksville.

In lieu of flowers, the family is kindly asking for donations to be made to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.