Carolyn Jones Schorer’s (nicknamed “Lonnie”) passion for aviation was fostered by trips with her father to Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, to watch planes take off and land. This early fascination led her to earn her single-engine and floatplane licenses. With Amelia Earhart as an inspirational role model, upon reading about The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery’s (TIGHAR) expeditions to Nikumaroro, a Central Pacific island in the nation of Kiribati, to investigate the Earhart mystery, she passed the requisite tests and became a member of the TIGHAR team, serving on five expeditions as a researcher, an archaeologist, a kite aerial photographer, and an assistant drone operator. Throughout her diverse career, Ms. Schorer has maintained her interest in aviation, working as pit crew at three Reno Air Races, and, as a Civil Air Patrol first lieutenant in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, serving as Hawk Squadron historian and emergency services aircrew, with qualifications as scanner, mission observer, and airborne photographer.
Alarmed by President John F. Kennedy’s Cuban Missile Crisis speech, Ms. Schorer changed her major to Russian and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies from Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Recruited by the U.S. Government, she worked in Washington, D.C., and overseas, playing a role in opening the U.S. Consulate in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the former Soviet Union. The advance party of diplomats marked the first official U.S. representation in the region since the closure of the U.S. Embassy in Petrograd during the Russian Revolution of 1917-1923. Ms. Schorer spent 30 years living overseas in Thailand, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, Italy, and Norway supporting her husband David’s U.S. Department of State career while working and raising son Scott and daughters Kimberly and Kristen with a sense of normalcy in different cultures, often laced with curfews and terrorism.
Inspired by her uncle, group Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, U.S. Fifth Army Captain Deane Keller, who served as a Monuments Man in Italy during World War II, and drawing on family lineage with her mother’s and father’s families comprised of artists and builders, Ms. Schorer studied architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, graduating with a Master of Architecture degree in 1985. As Director of WHIT (short for the World Heritage Initiatives Taskforce), Ms. Schorer engaged in UNESCO World Heritage Site programs, including the establishment of an Auburn University program for architecture and land planning students in Røros, Norway. She worked on multiple land planning, commercial, maritime, and architectural preservation projects for firms in the U.S., Italy, Turkey, and Norway. For five years – from ship planning to christening – she lived in Norway, serving as senior vice president of design and construction for the innovative shipboard community known as the World of ResidenSea, building the largest private residential yacht on the seas.
Focusing on creative expression, Ms. Schorer has enjoyed acclaim, earning the National Science Teachers Association Recommends Award for “Kids to Space: A Space Traveler’s Guide,” “Kids to Space Mission Plans: An Educator’s Guide” and “Kids to Space Club: Are We There Yet?” With proceeds benefitting New Hampshire wildlife, she has written “The Moose Family: Roaming the Forests, Footloose and Free” and has published articles in maritime, architectural, exploration, and space journals. Collaborating with astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin, she directed the Global Space Travelers program with ShareSpace, signing books with Dr. Aldrin under the space shuttle at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian, visiting schools, and meeting with visionaries to involve them in future space-related efforts.
With a soul dedicated to exploration, Ms. Schorer has been a member of The Explorers Club since 1998 and, in addition to the TiGHAR Earhart expeditions, has conducted historical research with the nonprofit Air/Sea Heritage Foundation that contributed to the recent USS Stewart (DD-224) wreck discovery as well as serving with their expedition field team aboard E/V Nautilus in the search for Samoan Clipper, a pioneering Pan Am S-42B type flying boat that went down off the coast of American Samoa. Ms. Schorer’s work for NOAA’s Maritime Heritage program for “Lady Lex”, the USS Lexington (CV2), and her archival reconstruction of the Battle of the Coral Sea, led to a portion of the Coral Sea off the northeast coast of Australia being declared a Marine Protected Area (or MPA) and supported the management of several significant underwater cultural heritage sites, including comprehensive documentation of the wreckage of USS Macon (ZRS-5), an interwar U.S. Navy rigid airship that internally carried five Curtiss F-9C Sparrowhawk parasite fighters used for scouting.
Throughout her career, Ms. Schorer has been committed to creating educational opportunities and experiences to encourage young people, serving as a Scout leader, giving hands-on workshops, working as staff for the Lillehammer, Norway, and Atlanta Olympics and Paralympics, working as a member of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Committee to help young people affect positive change, serving as an officer on the Connecticut College Alumni Board of Directors, and serving as vice chair, chair, nominations chair, and Lowell Thomas chair for the Explorers Club Washington Group, as well as on the Conservation Committee, the World Oceans Week Committee, and the Flag & Honors Committee for The Explorers Club. For the family, she is the creator and organizer of the always challenging Rock Rally.
Ms. Schorer looks forward to ongoing professional involvement while prioritizing time with her family, including four grandsons and brothers Russell and David Jones and their families. Committed to her community, she supports local activities and volunteers whenever possible. Ms. Schorer stays active by jogging, trekking, kayaking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, discussing reads with book club friends, and walking her Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Jib. She enjoys testing outdoor gear and seeks opportunities to immerse herself in whatever nature has to offer.
