Writer-playwright Carla Seaquist died of complications of thyroid cancer Aug. 31. A 22-year Gig Harbor resident with her husband, Larry, Carla located her writing “at the intersection of politics, culture, and the American character, with an ethical-moral lens.”
Born in 1944 in San Antonio, Texas, at the Fort Hood Army Hospital where her father was a World War II Army doctor, Carla grew up in Chehalis, Washington, graduating from W.F. West High School in 1963. Her father, Dr. Carl Lofberg, was a family physician and longtime member of the school board. Her mother, Mildred Lofberg, is celebrated in Carla’s new book, “Across the Kitchen Table, A Mother and Daughter Turn Tragedy into Peace.”
Drawn to a wider world, she majored in international affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. After work as a researcher at the Library of Congress, her study for a master’s degree at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies included a year in Bologna, Italy. Joining the editorial staff of The Brookings Institution in 1972 in Washington, Carla co-founded and chaired the Women’s Caucus. Her lecture series featured women political, government and academic leaders. Her audience included to-become husband Larry, a naval officer on sabbatical at Brookings.
Moving to San Diego 1977 when Larry went back to sea in command, Carla became the equal opportunity officer for the City of San Diego where she hired the first women firefighters and trash truck drivers. Serving on the California Governor’s Task Force on Civil Rights, awarded the Susan B. Anthony Award by the National Organization of Women, she wrote the nation’s first municipal sexual harassment ordinance and opened paths for military spouses to flourish in their own careers.
Fulfilling her childhood ambition, Carla turned to writing in 1982. As Navy assignments moved them to Seattle, on to Newport, Rhode Island, then back to Washington, D.C., for many years, she found her first full, creative voice as a playwright. Two of her four plays are published in her book: “Two Plays of Life and Death.” Based on Carla’s actual phone calls during the siege of Sarajevo, her play, “Who Cares?: The Washington-Sarajevo Talks,” maps our connection to those under fire — a story Carla saw as still alive in today’s Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. The book’s other play, “Kate and Kafka,” pits Katherine Hepburn, the life force, against Franz Kafka’s death force in another eternal human struggle.
Sensing that “history was happening,” the al-Qaeda attacks on 9/11 in 2001 were a turning point for Carla. In her words, “History had dealt America a blow … I wanted to make sense of it, help us recover. Best tool, it seemed to me, was the great legacy of the Enlightenment: Reason. In chaos, keep your head and think.”
Writing columns first for The Christian Science Monitor, then for Huffington Post, finally publishing for a worldwide readership on Medium, Carla collected her commentary in four books. “Manufacturing Hope” and “Can America Save Itself? Politics, Culture, Morality” (Vol’s. I & II with Vol. III to come) span her full landscape of politics, film, music and books.
Carla’s memoir, “Across the Kitchen Table, a Mother and Daughter Turn Tragedy into Peace,” will be published nationally Jan. 14, 2025. Her personal story of rebuilding her relationship with her mother, the book — which details life in Chehalis in the post-War years — is available now on Amazon and your local bookstore.
Always immersed in national and international political dynamics, Carla encouraged Larry in his campaigns for and service in the Washington Legislature. Carla served on the Board of Humanities Washington and enjoyed many years helping judge the annual Students of Distinction awards for students in our three Peninsula School District high schools.
Carla is survived by Larry, her husband of 47 years; by two brothers and their families, John “J” Lofberg, of Carson, Washington, and Ted Lofberg, of Chehalis; by close relatives Dr. Joseph and Dr. Michelle Bell; and by a number of long-time friends and soul-mates. To be joined by husband Larry, Carla will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. A graveside service will be scheduled by the cemetery early in 2025.
Larry will host an in-person and online celebration of life service at and from their home on what would be Carla’s 80th birthday, Dec. 1. Readers may enjoy her writing on Amazon and Medium. Her website, www.carlaseaquist.com, archives all her work.
Coming down for dinner from her writing desk, Carla would often declare: “I love writing!” At age 79, she had mapped out another 20 years of creative work on a new play, a novel and much more commentary. Even as pain from cancer and a stroke tightened their grip, she was determined to keep writing. Her most recent essays connected today’s Americans to Ben Franklin, “Founding Father for Our Times,” and to Walt Whitman, “‘Democratic Vista’ Imagining Democracy’s Soul.” Writing and publishing just days ago, her most recent piece reminded us of “The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent.”
In lieu of flowers, memorials in her honor may be sent to the Chehalis Foundation marked for the Students of Distinction scholarships.
The last words from Carla: To Life!
Haven of Rest, Gig Harbor, Washington
Carla will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery (when scheduled by the cemetery in several months).
