Gail (Carlson) Bachorik

Gail (Carlson) Bachorik was the second daughter of Corinne (Parsons) Carlson and Howard W. Carlson. Gail was born in 1950, graduated from Burncoat High School in 1968, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1973.

In 1975, she met Richard Bachorik, of New York, while he was managing a portion of the construction of the new University of Massachusetts Hospital. Gail and Dick were married in 1977.

During the next three decades, they resided in Burlington, Vermont; Columbus, Ohio; Phoenix, Arizona, and Sewickly, Pennsylvania, while Dick continued to work as a construction manager on large projects. Gail, too, worked on several of the projects in various roles.

Gail thrived on Dick’s optimism, energy, and wit. She and Dick enjoyed sailing, golfing, and vacationing.

Gail thrived also as an artist. Her keen sense of design and color, matched with her manual dexterity and fertile imagination, enabled her to work in several media. Eventually she specialized in the design and production of images to display on indoor walls – not in paint but in fabric.

She used quilting material and quilting techniques to depict fish, landscapes, flowers, portraits – whatever her imagination devised. Gail’s colorful “art quilts” were made to be viewed, not to be used. They are eye-catching.

One of her finest pieces, 4’ x 6’, depicts on a black background a side view of a galloping white war horse, at full stretch, bearing a nearly horizontal Samurai warrior in full battle gear, sword drawn for combat. Everyone who sees the piece pauses to admire it.

Another of Gail’s major pieces depicts not the colorful turbulence of a charging Samurai but rather the calm of two men in a music room. In muted colors, one man plays a concert grand piano. The other man stands nearby, listening, while holding a glass of wine. The single speck of color in the room is the tiny bright red goblet of the listener’s wine glass.

The music scene has a hidden message that could be understood only by Gail’s close friends and relatives. Only they would know that the pianist was her brother, Steven (a master musician) and his partner, David.

Gail and Dick eventually retired to a handsome coastal home in Oriental, North Carolina. After experiencing more than one Atlantic storm, however, they decamped to a less exposed home near Pensacola, Florida.

Their arrival in Florida unfortunately coincided with that of Hurricane Ivan (a Category 5 storm), but they recovered quickly. Gail continued to design and produce her art quilts, and she displayed them at a Pensacola artists’ cooperative gallery, of which she soon became Director.

Dick Bachorik died in 2007. By 2019, Gail’s health was faltering, and she decided to return to Worcester. Gail died on July 3, 2025.

Gail’s only brother, Steven, predeceased her. Gail is survived by her sisters, Jean Jones Harger and Judith (Carlson) LaBombard.