Who was Eric Carle’s First Wife, Dorothea & Did They Have Children?

Eric Carle was married twice in his life. His first wife was Dorothea Carle (née Dorothea Wohlenberg), with whom he had two children – a son named Rolf Carle and a daughter named Cirsten Carle.

Carle and Dorothea married in the early years of his career, before he found fame as a children’s book author and illustrator. They were together for many years, raising their son and daughter.

Carle met his first wife, Dorothea, in Germany. Carle often hid “C” and “R” in his collages, denoting the first letters of his children’s names.

However, details about Dorothea and her relationship with Eric Carle are limited in the available biographical information. The focus tends to be more on his second marriage to Barbara “Bobbie” Morrison, with whom he co-founded the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art.

After Bobbie’s death in 2015, Eric Carle was survived by his two children from his first marriage to Dorothea – Rolf and Cirsten. Rolf’s wife Teresa Toro is also mentioned as part of the family. But beyond acknowledging their existence, the sources do not provide much additional information about Eric’s first family.