We were saddened to learn last month of the death of a well-known and well-regarded member of the Adoption Reform Community.

Carol F. Gustavson, of Hackettstown, NJ, passed away on December 2, 2015, at the age of 85. She had, apparently, suffered for many years from Alzheimer’s, but was once one of the most active people in the Adoption Reform Movement.

Carol was the adoptive mother of four children: Jeff, Gary, and Sue, who were adopted as infants, and Cindy, whom she took in as a troubled teen and adopted as an adult. In the 1980s, she founded the group Adoptive Parents For Open Records (APFOR), at a time when few adoptive parents supported the cause of adoption reform.

Eventually, she helped all of her children search and reunite when they were young adults, something nobody was doing at the time. She was a member of CUB, among other groups; she attended demonstrations for open records with her big APFOR banner; she spoke out constantly, and was a good friend to many adoptees and birth mothers.