Carrie Lea Neergaard Shaeffer of Pleasanton, California, went to be with the Lord on Feb. 22, 2025. She is survived by her husband of 61 years, D. Lynn Shaeffer; by her sons Derek and Ian Shaeffer; by her four grandchildren: Isaac (24), Aidan (20), Kaitlyn (16) and Caleb (12); and by her sister Rowena Neergaard McMillin.
Carrie was born in Caryville, Tennessee, on Nov. 16, 1940, to Richard and Iona Neergaard. Her father, Richard, was a coal mine superintendent and land surveyor and her mother was a schoolteacher and homemaker. During her formative years, her family lived in Hazard, Kentucky, then Portsmouth, Ohio and finally Butler, Pennsylvania. Carrie was first in her class of 600 at Butler High School with a strong aptitude for mathematics. She pursued a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), in spite of being discouraged by the Director of Admissions, who was opposed to female applicants. The engineering department was very supportive, however, and Carrie went on to graduate as only the second woman to earn an engineering degree from Carnegie. Carrie’s life-long interests in engineering, music and her Christian faith are evident from the leadership roles she took while at Carnegie. She was Vice-Chairman of the Society of Women Engineers, President of Cameron Choir and Treasurer of Tech Christian Fellowship. After college, she took a position at RCA in the Astroelectronics Division and contributed to designing our country’s first weather satellite (Nimbus I).
Carrie met her future husband, Lynn (a physicist), while at Carnegie, and they were married in 1963. Carrie’s parents initially opposed their union, but the young couple were determined to marry. They were married just eight days after President Kennedy was assassinated. Starting in 1970 with the birth of her first son, Derek, Carrie decided to set aside her engineering career to raise her kids. Her second son, Ian, was born in 1973. Over the years, the family lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Santa Barbara, California; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Albuquerque, New Mexico and finally Pleasanton, California following Lynn’s career path. Lynn spent the majority of his career as a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Carrie focused on the family, while remaining very active in their church and community. Along the way, she also taught for a period at a local technical college in Albuquerque, and later on in Pleasanton she did tax preparation and worked for a mortgage broker for several years after her boys left home. Her sons are both college graduates from USC and Stanford with advanced degrees in Engineering, now working together in the tech industry at Apple, Inc. Carrie’s influence can be seen in their lives, as both are active musicians and engineers. Lynn retired from LLNL in 2010 and with Carrie moved to nearby Stoneridge Creek Retirement Community (SRC) in Pleasanton in 2016.
Over the years, Carrie maintained various interests and community involvements. She enjoyed international travel with Lynn, including visits to Russia, Kazakhstan and others. She also enjoyed car trip camping vacations with her kids when they were younger (many miles were logged, and many states were visited). She accompanied Lynn—an avid photographer—on birdwatching trips. She loved choral singing and was involved in a competitive barbershop choir through a Sweet Adelines chapter, Harmony Fusion Chorus. She also led the altos section of the SRC Chorus and was a member of a barbershop quartet there (the only woman!) She and Lynn consistently called family members every year to sing Happy Birthday on their voicemails, and she loved going caroling at Christmas. When afflicted by shortness of breath late in life, she sought medical attention saying, “I just want to be able to sing”. She enjoyed supporting her grandchildren’s various activities, whether in sports or in the arts. She loved playing cards with her family and regularly played bridge with Lynn. Annually, she provided Christmas wreaths for family members to hang on their doors. A lifelong Christian, Carrie was an active member of various churches in the area over the past 40 years, including the Evangelical Free Church in Pleasanton, Community Presbyterian Church in Danville, First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, Centerville Presbyterian Church in Fremont and Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church. She also was active in a weekly Bible study at SRC and she enjoyed attending theological conferences with Lynn. In these ways and more, Carrie invested herself heavily in her family and in her community. She provided a model of faith, love, hard work and service which continues to inspire us. By God’s grace, and to His glory, she was a blessing to us all.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 22, at 2 p.m. at Canyon Creek Presbyterian Church, 9015 South Gale Ridge Road, San Ramon, California, 94582.
