Carolyn Merry, a professor emerita in the College of Engineering, died Tuesday in a traffic accident.  Credit: Ohio State University

Carolyn Merry, a professor emerita in the College of Engineering, died Tuesday in a traffic accident.
Credit: Ohio State University

A College of Engineering professor emerita died in a car accident Tuesday.

Carolyn Merry, a scholar in remote sensing and geographic information systems, was driving north on I-71 when her car was hit from behind by a semi-truck that didn’t stop for traffic that was backed up by an earlier crash, according to a press release from OSU.

Merry was 63 years old.

“We will miss Carolyn greatly. She was a leader, a scholar, a teacher, a mentor, so many wonderful things,” said College of Engineering dean David Williams in a released statement. “Carolyn has left us—and future generations of Buckeye engineers—with a lasting legacy of compassion, brilliance, and pioneering achievement.”

Merry retired last year after 25 years at OSU, beginning in 1988 when she was an assistant professor teaching surveying and remote sensing. In 2004, Merry became the department chair.

Merry and her husband, Robert Redfield, established the Carolyn J. Merry Engineering Scholarship Fund in 2009 with the goal of providing renewable scholarships to civil and environmental engineering undergraduate students.

Details on service arrangements will be released when made available, the press release said.

An OSU spokeswoman referred back to the release and did not provide further comment.