Palouse residents hold vigil for comatose neighbor friend

A candle-light vigil for Mike Carlton, long-time Palouse resident who slipped into unconsciousness Oct. 12, was held last Thursday in Palouse.

He was taken off life support Saturday morning and switched to a "comfort care" mode, said Echanove. That comfort care means Carlton is being given medication to treat pain.

Palouse Mayor Michael Echanove reported Wednesday that Carlton is still alive, but unconscious.

More than 80 people gathered in downtown Palouse to remember a man who drove a school bus, started his own wind-energy company, and served Pullman as a police officer for 14 years.

"We lost a friend. We lost a community member. We lost a family member," said Echanove, who visited Carlton in the hospital.

Carlton is believed to have suffered a hypoglycemic episode at his home and was found unconscious.

Palouse Police Chief Jerry Neumann discovered Carlton at his home in Palouse after Carlton failed to show up at the school for his bus route.

He was placed in the intensive care unit at Pullman Regional Hospital.

Dozens of friends, family members and co-workers visited him as he lay unresponsive in his bed at the hospital.

"I’m used to seeing the guy pretty much every day, five days a week. It’s not something you expect to happen," said Corey Laughary, who daily worked with Carlton driving school buses for the Palouse schools.

Laughary, a pastor, also visited Carlton at the hospital.

"He was a character. Mike loves to tell jokes - loves to have fun and was a hard worker, honorable man," Laughary said.

He said he passes by Carlton’s wind turbine on his bus route every day. It is usually spinning in the sunrise when he drives past.

"This morning the red sunrise was just beautiful. His turbine has been spinning every day but today it was still," Laughary said. "It was sad his wind turbine wasn’t spinning."

Carlton worked 14 years for the Pullman Police Department from 1991 to 2005.

Co-worker and personal friend Sgt. Dan Dornes said Carlton was particularly talented at working with the public.

"He was a very giving person of himself and his time," Dornes said.

Carlton left the police department five years ago. For a time he worked for the United Nations in Liberia where he trained police officers.

His interest in wind energy led him to install his own wind turbine and begin Palouse Synergy, an energy auditing company.

"He was a man of integrity and he was a man of principle," Dornes said.

Bev Pearce said Carlton performed an energy audit on her 104-year-old home in Palouse. He found multiple cracks in the house and showed the Pearce family how to better insulate their home.

"He was a smart guy and it’s just a tragic loss," Pearce said.

Carlton’s two sisters and his mother have been staying at the hospital with him. He was not married and had no children.