In the early hours of Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, former Eastern Michigan University professor Carol Ann Schlagheck, 68, of La Salle Township died in her home after a battle with cancer. She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2015
A visitation will be held at Capaul Funeral home at 8216 Ida West Road, Ida, Michigan, 2-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 9.
Schlagheck was a journalism professor at EMU from 1994 to 2021. She taught hundreds of students and served as the chairperson of the Student Media Board.
Journalism was a part of Schlagheck's life from the beginning. She was the editor of The Goalpost, her high school newspaper, got her master’s degree in Journalism from Michigan State University, was the co-founder of The Bedford Journal, and was a reporter and copy editor for The Monroe Evening News, 1978-79, stated her obituary.
While at the Monroe Evening News, she met her husband, Charles Slat, whom she married on January 16, 1981, the obituary said. Slat was also a journalist.
After her grandfather’s abduction and murder in 1972 went unprosecuted, Schlagheck utilized her skills in reporting and investigating to bring justice to him and the two other men killed, her family said in her obituary. She was successful, and the perpetrator was sentenced to life in prison in 2014, the obituary said.
Schlagheck had interest in digitalization and helped to combine journalism, electronic media and film studies into Media Studies and Journalism in 2014, according to reporting from WEMU.
A former student of hers, Nathan Bomey, posted on Facebook in memoriam the day after Schlagheck’s death: “Carol was a journalism professor at Eastern Michigan University, but she was so much more than that. She was a mentor, an inspiration, a friend. I learned so much from her. Yes, I learned about journalism. But I also learned about grit and determination. I witnessed her courage. She taught us how to stand up to hostile sources — and then she showed us how to stand up to a hostile disease.”
In Bomey’s keynote speech during the 2017 Undergraduate Symposium, he spoke about the relationship he had and all he had learned from Schlagheck.
“It's what I’ve learned from Carol since graduating from Eastern that I could truly never forget. She has faced a harrowing health challenge over the last two years, fighting every single day, and then unexpectedly she endured personal tragedy with the loss of her husband and fellow journalist Charlie. During these terrible trials, Carol has exhibited immense grace and courage and she has lived life authentically, sharing her struggles and showing us how to face our fears. Collectively, those traits have taught me far more than any classes ever could. I want to say thank you to Carol for being a fighter and thank you for teaching us all so much more than we could have ever asked for,” he said.
Another student of Schlagheck's, Kory Woods, posted on Facebook that she was his favorite teacher and remembered her humble generosity: "When I returned to Eastern Michigan to finish my journalism degree, she awarded me a scholarship in her late husband's name without even telling me — the Charles Slat Memorial Scholarship. She just did it! I didn't even know where that extra money came from until she told me out the blue several months later," he said.
Schlagheck was preceded in death by her husband Slat; mother, Yvonne Schlagheck and grandmother Deloris Ludlow.
She is survived by her three children Christopher Slat, Stephanie Slat, and Nicholas Slat; brother John (Jana) Schlagheck, sisters Marie (Victor) Valenzuela, Susan (Mike) Jones, Kathleen (Tom) Beach Wirick and Kristine (Mark) Nowicki; as well as many nieces and nephews and her beloved golden retriever, Ella, her family said in her obituary.
In lieu of flowers, Schlagheck asked that contributions be made to the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Society, Camp Kesem at the University of Michigan, or to the Eastern Michigan University Foundation with a note for the Charles Slat and Carol Schlagheck Journalism Endowed Scholarship.
