Editing Eugene Merle Shoemaker (section)

==Family==
[[File:Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker.jpg|thumb|Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, 1994]]
While Shoemaker was attending Caltech, his roommate was Richard Spellman, a young man from [[Chico, California]]. Although Shoemaker had already enrolled in a doctoral program at Princeton University, he returned to California to serve as best man at Richard's wedding in 1950. He met Richard's sister, [[Carolyn S. Shoemaker|Carolyn]], for the first time on that occasion. Carolyn was born in Gallup, New Mexico, in 1929, but the Spellman family moved to Chico soon afterward. Carolyn earned degrees from [[Chico State College]] in history and political science. She never exhibited an interest in scientific subjects while growing up, and took one geology course in college, which she found boring. Nevertheless, the couple kept in touch while Shoemaker spent the next year in Princeton, followed by a two-week vacation touring the Colorado Plateau. She reportedly told others that listening to Shoemaker explain geology turned a boring subject into an exciting and interesting pursuit of knowledge.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} The couple married on August 17, 1951.<ref name="Chapman">{{cite web|url=https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/people/carolyn-shoemaker|last=Chapman|first=Mary G|title=Carolyn Shoemaker|publisher=USGS Astrogeology Center|date=May 17, 2002|access-date=April 24, 2017|archive-date=April 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425114607/https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/people/carolyn-shoemaker|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Shoemakers had three children: two daughters and one son. Carolyn saw her work as keeping house and raising the children especially after they settled in Flagstaff in the 1960s. She had tried teaching school before they married, but found the work unsatisfying. She also traveled sometimes with Gene, but stopped after she noticed that her absence affected the children. After their children were grown, Carolyn wanted something meaningful to combat the "empty nest" feeling. By then, Gene suggested that she take up astronomy and join his team looking for asteroids approaching Earth. A student working at Lowell Observatory commenced teaching her astronomy. She showed great potential and launched her career as a planetary astronomer at age 51. She continued the work until her death in 2021.<ref name="Chapman"/>