Gloria Karpinski
1935 - 2025
Gloria Karpinski died peacefully on May 27, 2025 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Born Gloria Dawn Gilmore to Carl and Elizabeth Gilmore on December 11, 1935 in Roanoke, Virginia. She was a curious, imaginative and artistic child. She attended Greensboro Senior High, where she was May Queen. She graduated from Woman’s College, later known as the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in English and Psychology. Gloria taught at Aycock Junior High, wrote for a Greensboro newspaper, had a column in Home Furnishings Daily, and served as Information Director at Old Salem. In 1958, she gave birth to a son Carlton and in1959 a daughter Dawn.
Gloria, after study, training, and much self-exploration became a psychospiritual teacher. She designed and led workshops nationally and internationally. Women and Wisdom, a non-profit Greensboro organization, which encourages people to awaken their inner wisdom and passionate creativity to benefit humanity, sponsored Gloria in 1979 for her first of many New York workshops. Women and Wisdom has continued to give loving and devoted support for Gloria’s work throughout the rest of her life. In her work, Gloria facilitated and celebrated individuals’ discovery of the Divine Mother and Light within us all. She enabled the connection and establishment of a deep relationship to Spirit through her charismatic teaching, meditations, life readings, and writing.
Gloria was also a published author with Where Two Worlds Touch, Barefoot on Holy Ground, and Midnight Rainbows, A Memoir. Her website Center Circle offers wisdom and images that inspire. She liked nothing better than supporting another in their growth through word and deed.
Center Circle may be reached through www.gloriakarpinski.com
Surviving are son Carlton Walden Karpinski (Leslie), their three sons, Patrick, Kevin (Kaycie), and Alex (Kenzie), and daughter Dawn Elizabeth Hall (Mitch), and their son Joshua (Heather) and their daughter Kristin (TJ). Gloria has 8 great-grandchildren. She was an adoring grandmother, known as GG.
Donations to Trellis Hospice in Winston Salem and Women and Wisdom Foundation will be gratefully received in Gloria’s name.
Gloria has helped to shape my life since the day I took her class in 1983 at a Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship retreat. Her teachings in workshops and retreats helped expand my awareness of a multitude of spiritual perspectives and practices. Her books gave me manuals for the evolution of my psychological and spiritual growth. The attunements she did for me gave me understandings of myself and my path that no on else could have. The friendship we developed gave me so much laughter, fun, and further learning. “Sharing stages” as she used to say about the presentations we co-facilitated helped prepare me for following in her footsteps as an author, speaker, and workshop leader. (The bar she set will always be what I aspire to.) I am deeply honored that she generously wrote the foreword to my book; for years she has included “how’s the book coming?” in the ways she wanted updates on what was going on for me. Gloria was physically graceful and beautiful. We enjoyed shopping, popcorn and chocolate, and watching movies while winding down after events. I’ll never forget her laugh, the way her voice would shift when she led us in meditations, and knowing she would always remind me of who I am as spirit in form. Palms together and a deep bow of gratitude for the ways you taught and blessed me, Gloria. See you next time.
Gloria was a warm, welcome friend for many decades. She will be missed!
However, her passion, her dedication to her signature focus to “The Divine Mother” will blessedly and effortlessly live on.
Gloria Karpinski, the teacher, was a sophisticated, elegant and eloquent speaker at a podium or a workshop.
As the saying goes, Gloria Walked Her Talk.
Bless you, Gloria, as you join the many gifted Master Teachers now in the Spirit Realm.
So glad to have mingled our paths this time around. Yes, till next time.
There are not enough words to thank Gloria for the indelible mark she has left on my soul. She has been an incredible mentor, guide, and friend to so many and especially to me! I will miss her so dearly but will have her near through her words of wisdom, books, workshops, Dakshina, my attunements and just spending time together! She has touched so many lives and in doing so she has allowed us to reach so many more. I am forever grateful to her for coming into my life!. I will look for her and know I will feel her presence in many ways, especially each time I see a dragon or damsel fly!
Until we meet again Dear Gloria ❤️
She and her incredible books so brilliantly guided me through all my journeys. I came across her books 25 years ago, and then the added fortunate extra of being with her in workshops and Dakshina. I still use her brilliance today. The best thing I loved most about her is how she used her brilliance to help us see our brilliance, in a gentle pure way. Plus so much fun and humor and incredible style. Thanks you Gloria.
I am deeply grateful that Gloria came into my life. She was a true teacher of the soul—radiant with wisdom, grace, and that unforgettable, resonant voice that seemed to speak directly to the heart.
Through her attunements and teachings, I received not only guidance but profound healing. Gloria held a space where I always felt accepted, seen, and loved—something that meant more to me than words can ever fully express.
I remember her quiet humor, her insight that always landed with truth, and even the simple joy of sharing a slice of cake after deep work. She walked her path with dignity and light, and those of us who had the gift of walking alongside her—if only for a while—are forever changed.
Thank you, Gloria, for your blessing on my book, and even more, for the blessing of your presence in my life.