Carol Ruth BELSHEIM

1930 - 2023  (93 years)

• Name	Carol Ruth BELSHEIM
  Birth	20 Feb 1930	Hennepin County, Minnesota
  Gender	Female
  Death	19 Oct 2023	New Mexico
  Notes	She attended Calhoun elementary school in Minneapolis and graduated from Minneapolis West High School in 1948. In the 1950 census, she was a student at St. Olaf College and was a lodger with a family in Northfield. St. Olaf College, 1952. University of Minnesta, MA Library Science, 1972. At the announcement of her marriage to Malmberg in 1954, an article in the Star said that she was intending to pursue graduate studies at the University of Minnesota where her new husband would also be studying. A celebration of Carol’s life will be held at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, at Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2390 North Road, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Carol Ruth Belsheim Nielson — a musician and librarian known and loved for her graciousness, generosity, and irrepressible sense of humor — died Oct. 19, 2023, in Santa Fe, NM, after a long decline due to cardiac issues and Parkinson’s disease. Born Feb. 20, 1930, in Minneapolis, MN, Carol was the oldest child of Dorothy Stephan Belsheim, a homemaker and grocery store worker, and George Nathan Belsheim, a music teacher, choral conductor, and humor writer. She began piano and violin lessons at an early age, and in college switched to viola — an instrument she continued to play with great skill and enjoyment for more than seven decades. Carol earned a BA in music performance and education from St. Olaf College in 1952. In 1954 she married Allan Malmberg, a cellist she’d played with in a string quartet and the St. Olaf Orchestra. The following summer they moved to Los Alamos, NM, where Allan had been offered a job at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (later LANL) through a former professor. Allan and Carol divorced in 1966, and Carol began working full time at LASL’s scientific reference and reports library while bringing up three small children. Carol moved the kids to Minneapolis temporarily in late 1970 so she could complete her master’s degree in library science at the University of Minnesota. On returning to LASL, she continued to grow professionally, eventually becoming head of the reference department at the Lab library. In the early 1970s, Carol was selected to train on a new electronic data transfer system that linked government libraries across the U.S. The network gave librarians broader and faster access to classified reference sources, which enabled the scientists they served to collaborate more fluidly. Though it was a closed system due to security requirements, in some ways it paralleled other early precursors to the internet. Carol remained conversant with computers and electronic communications throughout her life, seeing them as useful tools to find and share information. But even without digital search tools, Carol could find multiple references for any query, no matter how obscure or unusual. She was Google before there was a Google. She also volunteered her librarian superpowers to catalog the library at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, her spiritual home for many decades. In 1967, Carol gave a library tour to a small group of scientists, including a young physicist named Clair Nielson. Carol and Clair dated off and on for the next 13 years, and were married in January 1981, after an engagement of just a few weeks. They were together for the next 40 years, enjoying music, food, books, gardens, travel, and each other’s company, until his death in July 2021. Classical music was Carol’s lifelong passion. She loved playing chamber music with other talented musicians in Los Alamos, and also performed with the Los Alamos Sinfonietta (later the Los Alamos Symphony Orchestra), the Los Alamos Choral Society, the Santa Fe Community Orchestra, and other groups. During the early years of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, she played the organ for church services. After Carol retired from LANL in 1993, she played viola semiprofessionally for several years with the Roswell Symphony Orchestra. Carol’s ashes will be interred at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church columbarium alongside those of her late husband, Clair. She is survived by her children, Eric, Stephen, and Elise Malmberg, along with Eric’s sons, Aidan and Jordan Malmberg, and Elise’s spouse, Joe Gore. The family extends deep gratitude to the caregivers who helped Carol with such grace during her final two years: Frankie Serna, Rafael Escamilla, Claudia Salas, Sandra Valdez, Viridiana Cruz-Cardenas, and Carol’s “sunshine,” Sandra Salas. Even as she declined, Carol charmed those around her with her witty remarks and extensive vocabulary. She took great delight in finding just the right (often polysyllabic) word to make her meaning clear. In our hearts, she’s exchanging wry observations from above with Clair, her brother Jerry, her father and mother, her beloved aunties, and the many dear friends who passed before her. In lieu of flowers, please listen to a piece of music you love. Memorial contributions may be sent to the George Nathan Belsheim Endowed Scholarship for music majors at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.
  Person ID	I41431	Don Carlson's Tree
  Last Modified	23 May 2024

  
  

  Father	George Nathan BELSHEIM,   b. 19 Mar 1900, Albert Lea, Freeborn County, Minnesota d. 12 Oct 1984, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota (Age 84 years)
  Mother	Dorothy STEPHAN,   b. 1907, Iowa d. 2003 (Age 96 years)
  Family ID	F27809	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	A.F. MALMBERG
  Family ID	F27810	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 May 2024

  
  

  Family 2	Clair NIELSON,   b. 10 Dec 1935, Idaho d. 18 Jul 2021, New Mexico (Age 85 years)
  Family ID	F27811	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 May 2024