Clementine Carroll, Defense Department worker; OIC official, dies at 93

Clementine Carroll, 93, formerly of Willingboro, a longtime employee at the Navy Aviation Supply Office and later Philadelphia OIC, died Wednesday, March 11, of pulmonary illness at the Foulkeways retirement community in Gwynedd.

Ms. Carroll was born in Philadelphia to Mary Madeline Madison as the eldest of three children. After graduating from Germantown High School in 1946, she married Norman T. Matlock and had one child. The marriage ended in divorce.

Ms. Carroll was a 14-year employee at the Navy Aviation Supply Office, where she worked as a statistical draftsman. Her family said she was especially proud that her work went directly to an admiral.

After leaving the aviation supply office, Ms. Carroll worked for 25 years at the Philadelphia Opportunities Industrialization Center, the organization founded by the Rev. Leon H. Sullivan to help African Americans get the education and training needed to acquire employment.

She began her work at OIC as an office manager at the West branch and left as director of computer technology. She is included on the OIC’s Wall of Honor, her family said.

“My mother was a very capable person,” said her son, Norman G. Matlock.

He described her as a loving and caring woman who encouraged people to get their education, someone people enjoyed being around. “She was a perfect mother,” he said.

At 50, Ms. Carroll earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Antioch University, after moving to Willingboro in the early 1970s.

She later worked for the Willingboro School District for 10 years, retiring as the GED testing coordinator at the adult high school.

In addition, she ran for Willingboro Township Council in 1980 and cofounded the Burlington Chapter of the National Congress of Black Women, a nonprofit organization started by C. Delores Tucker and former New York Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm to support black women.

A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and charter member of the Pi Mu Omega Chapter in Willingboro, Ms. Carroll was a breast cancer survivor who volunteered for 25 years with the American Cancer Society’s Reach to Recovery program.

Her son said she enjoyed singing in the choirs of the various churches she had joined over the years: Grace Baptist, House of Prayer, and St. Thomas African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia; Tabernacle Baptist in Burlington; and Bethlehem Baptist in Spring House. She also worked on church committees and taught Sunday school.

In addition to her son, Ms. Carroll is survived by a granddaughter, two great-grandchildren, two brothers, and other relatives and friends.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a memorial service will be live-streamed at 11 a.m. Monday, March 23, from Bethlehem Baptist Church. To watch, go to https://bbc4christ.org/ and click the live-stream button at the top of the page. Burial will be private.

Donations may be sent to Foulkeways (Assistance Fund A), 1120 Meetinghouse Rd., Gwynedd, Pa. 19436.