Carol Stocking, a University social scientist and researcher, died of natural causes on March 20 at the age of 85.

Stocking worked at the University for 50 years, where she was affiliated with the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago, and the Section of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in the Department of Medicine. She also served as the director of research at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

Stocking’s research helped launch the careers of many scholars in clinical medical ethics. “Carol was interested in numbers, but she was more interested in the stories the numbers told,” John La Puma, a fellow at the MacLean Center, told the Hyde Park Herald. “She taught me that research methods could be kind, narrative, and still be precise.”

Stocking was noted for her wit and love of adventure. She and her husband, social science historian and University faculty member George Stocking Jr., made their home in Hyde Park, where Carol lived until her death. George died in 2013.

She is survived by five stepchildren, 10 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.