Carol Hochberg-Holker: Nov. 9, 1935 – Jan. 10, 2018
Carol Hochberg-Holker, 83, playwright, poet, dancer, died peacefully in her Berkeley, California home last week.
As a child, Carol fell in love with dancing and singing. In 1966, she began her own modern dance troupe, The Carol Ritter Dance Company, in Manhattan, NY.
Always filled with intellectual curiosity, and a lover of Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, she later earned her Masters’ in English from City College New York.
Carol edited for tech companies as well as essayists, novelists and poets. For many years, she led a monthly poetry group, and edited their poetry booklets. She also joined Will Dunne’s playwright’s group (San Francisco) where she mastered the art of playwriting. This eventually led to the stage reading of her own play, In Her Own Society based on the life of Emily Dickinson.
After meeting Ralph Holker, a sculptor, in 1969, they lived together in Brooklyn, NY until 1999 when they decided to live on a sail boat. They sailed down the East Coast from New York to Florida before buying their home in Berkeley.
Carol loved animals, especially her cats, Maya and Haiku. Cooking, reading, and the New York Time’s Sunday crossword puzzles were among her other pleasures.
Carol and Ralph were together for 48 years. Ralph, passed away on Dec. 2, 2017.
Carol leaves behind her sister, Linda Kasten, daughter Melissa Ritter-Sunderland, granddaughter Francesca Sunderland, and step-daughters, Barri Malek, Jaimi Bergeron, as well as five grandchildren.
She will be missed.