BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Former longtime Kern County Museum executive director and all-around community advocate Carola Rupert Enriquez has died, just a year and a half after her husband John Enriquez — also a beloved nonstop volunteer — passed away.
Carola and John were fixtures on the volunteerism scene, picking up trash along the freeway and throughout the city center, writing grants for community projects, participating in dog and cat rescues, and much more.
John Enriquez, tireless volunteer and model of kindness, dies at 72
They were heavily involved in the Fox Theater Foundation, the Houchin Community Blood Bank and an assortment of other organizations.
Kern County Museum executive director Mike McCoy said he learned a lot from Carola Enriquez, his predecessor at the museum.
“I’m not gonna lie — I shed a tear when I heard she passed,” he said. “For John too — I went to his service (in November 2024). But they were just a real dream team. He was quiet, she wasn’t, he could do blue collar stuff, she did the brain part. They were a team.”
McCoy notes that the museum’s world class neon sign collection started 20 years ago under Enriquez’s direction. She acquired the first eight and it’s now at 40.
Lori Wear, the longtime museum curator of collections under Enriquez, and now a state park ranger, said her former boss was full of energy and optimism.
“She was a friend, a mentor, and just instrumental and a huge supporter of history throughout the county,” Wear said. “Our community is certainly suffering at the loss of those two individuals who were such great champions for Kern County.”
Carola Enriquez was a proud breast cancer survivor but she succumbed on April 27 to pulmonary fibrosis caused by her autoimmune disease, Sjögren’s Syndrome, according to her family’s Facebook announcement.
She is survived by adult daughter Lauren and adult son John Patrick. No word yet on services.
Carola Rupert Enriquez was 72.