Maureen Cyr Caruso, known as Mo to many, grew up in Guilford and attended the Guilford public school system. Her experience of growing up with a congenital cardiac defect requiring numerous surgeries during childhood inspired her ultimate career choice of becoming a nurse. After first working in the marketing and insurance industries, she realized that her true calling was to use her unique experience to care for patients. This led to her work as a Registered Nurse at Yale New Haven Hospital in the liver and kidney transplant unit.

In her youth, Mo was active in softball and field hockey, and she played flute in her early years in the Guilford school system. She was also active in the theatre department as a stagehand. She worked at the Guilford landmark Naples pizza as well as for Guilford Parks and Recreation. Despite her early health challenges, her parents ensured that Mo lived a normal childhood, and the Guilford community was the perfect environment to allow that to happen. Loyal to her sister, to her family, and to a wide circle of friends, Mo was also an amazing wife to Joshua Caruso and loving (and fun) mom to Madelyn Rose and Ava Juliette.

Mo’s life suddenly and unexpectedly ended at the age of 33 in 2013. Her parents Shan and Ron Cyr created the Maureen Cyr Caruso Scholarship Fund through The Guilford Foundation in her memory four years after her passing. The purpose of the scholarship is to reward well-rounded graduating Guilford High School students interested in healthcare and especially in the field of nursing. Shan and Ron gave out the first scholarship award in May 2018.