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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesCancer Claims Carol Fava, 63

Cancer Claims Carol Fava, 63

Carol FavaCarol Fava passed away at home Friday with her husband, Joseph Tulis, by her side. The cause of death was metastatic breast cancer.

Carol was born in Boston, Mass. on Jan. 25, 1947, and spent her childhood and high school years in Natick, Mass. She graduated from Lasell College in 1966 and had many different careers and jobs – she was the first female involved in the “hi-fi” business and represented Bose Corporation on the East Coast before beginning her travels in 1975, when she flew to Greece for an open-ended holiday.

It was there she became smitten with sailing and the sailor’s life, making her way through the Mediterranean on a 65-foot ketch and across the Atlantic. Making landfall on Barbados, she fell in love with the Caribbean and the Grenadines and spent the next few years sailing its waters on large sailing vessels. She did many deliveries, up and down the coasts of the U.S. and lived on Bequia and Grenada for a spell. She returned to Boston, working with Cavedon Associates doing production styling for still photographers as well as being involved in the restaurant business in the city.

Not happy with the cold weather, she moved to Fort Lauderdale where she became a yacht broker for few years. She spent much of 1983 in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Adriatic Seas as a chef aboard a private yacht. She returned to Fort Lauderdale and then spent the summer in Annapolis, Md. aboard a 75-foot sloop, on which she sailed into St. Thomas in the fall of 1984, just prior to Hurricane Klaus. She met her husband shortly thereafter, although they did not marry until 2001.

She continued to work on boats for her first couple of years in the USVI, decided it was time to move ashore and began working in an entry-level production position at WBNB-Channel 10, St. Thomas’ CBS affiliate at the time. Under the tutelage of JoAnn Newhart, Carol became a producer, director, shooter, writer and voice-over talent. Through Channel 10 she met many people on the island and in the territory and made countless friends and acquaintances.

After Hurricane Hugo destroyed Channel 10, Carol worked for many years, off and on, with her dear friend Agi Rampino of Sunbow Location Services, coordinating commercial productions and films in the USVI, BVI and down island, including Barbados.

Carol was the innkeeper for the Summer House in’Sconset on Nantucket Island for the 1991-92 season She returned to St. Thomas and in 1993 began working with Margot Bachman and staff as an Associate Editor at the well-respected tourist publication, St. Thomas This Week. Hurricane Marilyn, in September, 1995 terminated that position.

Carol went back to part-time chartering as well as restaurant work and was manager of the Frenchtown Coffee Shop and Deli for a time until the business was sold to its current owners. Carol moved back to the States in 1998 to study holistic medicine. She settled in Newport, R.I., for almost three years and attended the University of Rhode Island. She and Joe decided to finally get married, and she returned to the island in November of 2000.

TV2 had just launched, and her former boss at Channel 10, JoAnn Newhart, offered her a position and she began work there as senior producer in December 2000. She and Joe married on St. Thomas on May 5, 2001 with their closest friends in attendance. Shortly thereafter, Carol was promoted to TV2’s Programming Director as well as Manager of four other producers. She produced and directed Talk 2, a live, call-in talk show as well as the popular historical show, “Inside,” which she co-hosted with Felipe Ayala. Together they brought over 30 shows about the architecture and history of the island to TV2 viewers.

Carol sat on the Board of the St. Thomas Historical Trust, as promotions chair as well as past secretary. She was active in the 1980s as a volunteer for Channel 12’s fundraising auctions and also, in the 1990s as a volunteer for one of the first anti-litter and beautification attempts on St. Thomas.

Carol also worked for the V. I. Source, helping to develop its advertising department shortly before her illness took hold.

Carol loved people and had a wide array of friends and acquaintances. She also loved animals, and she and her husband are responsible for spaying and neutering many stray cats in the Hull Bay area.

She is survived by her husband, her mother, Helen Hall Fava, and brother, Richard W. Fava, Jr, both of Deland, Fla. She also leaves behind her “adopted daughter,” Loren Mahaffey of St. Thomas; Agi Rampino, Jenn Johnson, Patricia LaCorte, all of St.Thomas and many more from the island; closest friends Dr. Julie Korenberg of Salt Lake City, Utah; Suzanne Cavedon of Boston; and Clayton Seitz of Lincoln, Mass.

Any contributions in her name should be made to the St.Thomas Historical Trust and/or The Humane Society of St. Thomas.

A memorial service is scheduled for a later date.

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