By Rebecca Goodman
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mr. Sulek

BRIDGETOWN - Carl E. Sulek, a retired accounting professor at Cincinnati State and Technical College, died Saturday of encephalitis at Community Multicare Center in Fairfield.

The Bridgetown resident was 80.

Mr. Sulek had been hospitalized since October after contracting West Nile virus, according to his son, William R. Sulekof Green Township. He never recovered.

In 1949, Mr. Sulek was hired by the superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools to teach at Central High School, which in those days occupied the facility that would become Cincinnati State.

Central would become the Claude V. Courter Technical High School before becoming a technical post-secondary institution in 1969. In the beginning, the school offered training in business, medicine, engineering and ornamental horticulture.

In addition to teaching, Mr. Sulek was coordinator of the cooperative program in the business department.

A native of Cambridge, Ohio, he enlisted in the Army during World War II. After his honorable discharge in 1946, he enrolled at Ohio University, receiving college credits after taking USAFI tests. He earned a bachelor's degree in business in 1948.

In was on the campus of OU that Mr. Sulek met his future wife, Virginia. They married in 1947.

He took a teaching position at Hinckley, Ohio. By 1949, he intended to enroll in a master's program at Columbia University. But that's when he was introduced to the Cincinnati superintendent, who hired him immediately after interviewing him.

In Cincinnati, Mr. Sulek was salary chairman and president of the Cincinnati Teachers Association. He represented that organization on the state level as a member of the Department of Classroom Teachers Executive Board. He was instrumental in forming the Council of Eight (eight Ohio cities, including Cincinnati, whose mission was to improve education standards in the state) and was elected its president.

He retired in 1982 and enjoyed an active life. He relished farming on property he owned in Indiana, always sharing the produce with his neighbors.

He was in robust health and was building a deck on his house the day before falling sick last October. He was admitted to Christ Hospital with a 105-degree temperature and diagnosed as having West Nile virus.

His health deteriorated when he contracted encephalitis and subsequently fell into a coma. He had been unresponsive since then.

Mr. Sulek was active in the lives of his grandsons and was also a devout Christian.

In addition to his son and his wife of 55 years, survivors include four grandsons.

Visitation is 6-8 p.m. today at Bolton & Lunsford Funeral Home, 3042 Harrison Ave., Westwood. The funeral is 11 a.m. Saturday at Westwood United Methodist Church, 3460 Epworth Ave. Burial is in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Memorials: American Cancer Society, 11117 Kenwood Road, Cincinnati 45242.

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com