IN MEMORIA M
CHARLES CARROLL CARTER ’45 Charles Carroll Carter, 92, a global advocate for urban transportation, died May 14, 2021 of natural causes in his home in Washington, D.C. after 19 years managing Parkinson’s Disease. He is survived by Rosemary, his wife of 64 years. Carter founded, published, and edited MASS TRANSIT, the first international trade magazine devoted to all forms of public transportation in cities, organized industry trade shows and conventions, and founded the International Mass Transit Association which advocated for more effective funding of global transit projects by the World Bank. Born on August 6, 1928 in Philadelphia, Carter was raised in Washington, as the fourth of six sons born to Anna Carroll Montgomery and James Newman Carter, Jr. He was a descendent of the Carters and Lees of Virginia, and the Carrolls of Maryland. In 2018, the United States Capitol Historical Society published Creating Capitol Hill: Place, Proprietors, and People, Carter’s 15-year effort to document the history of how the Capitol Building was built on Carroll family property. An active and lifelong Catholic, Carter advised James Cardinal Hickey, Archbishop of Washington, on key fundraising projects, was a Knight of Malta, and served as President of the Charles Carroll House in Annapolis. As President of the Greenwell Foundation at Greenwell State Park in Hollywood, Maryland, Carter carried out Philip Greenwell’s vision for a beautiful, and fully accessible place with no admission charge for those with developmental disabilities and their families to enjoy. Carter was raised and educated by his maternal grandmother Mary Ella Horsey Montgomery who lived on the same block as St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue. He attended the Calvert Hall School, the Portsmouth Priory School, the Belmont Abbey School, and graduated in 1945 from the Georgetown Preparatory School. He was a proud graduate of the Class of 1949 of the University of Notre Dame. Carter received a commission in the United States Air Force where his duties ran from serving as a purchasing officer to a Judge Advocate. He later was awarded an MBA from the American University. Carter married Rosemary Connelly Casey (the daughter of Emma Constance Connelly and Samuel Brown Casey) on November 24, 1956, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh, and started his work life building houses on Old Hickory Road off Little River Turnpike in Annandale. His lifelong passion for trains led him to study the railroad right-of-way in the Washington area and some of his maps were used in the original
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studies for what would later become the Washington Metro. After serving as the President of the Sommerfeld Machine Company in Braddock, PA, Carter served on the Pittsburgh Urban Transit Council. Active in Republican politics, Carter was appointed as the Deputy Administrator of the Urban Mass Transit Administration in 1968, and later served as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Transportation in the Nixon and Ford Administrations. Carter is survived by his wife Rosemary, daughter Constance Thérèse Carter (and her husband Gordon T. Dale), son Charles Carroll Carter, Jr. ’77, daughter Anna Montgomery Carter Saint John (and her husband John Saint John), daughter Joan Carter, son Adam Augustine Carter ’83 (and his wife Elisabeth Carter), and son Samuel Casey Carter ‘84(and his wife Nancy Dubé). Carter also has 14 grandchildren: Dr. Charlotte Carroll Lawson (and her wife Bethany Michelle Lawson), William David Lawson V, Henry Carter Lawson, Samuel Lee Carter, Luke Montgomery Carter, Nina Casey Carter, Blaise Carroll Carter, Fiona Catherine Carter, Rosemary Constance Jermakian, Claire Katherine Jermakian, Kirby Catherine Carter, Casey Elizabeth Carter, Lucy Carroll Carter, and Charles Carroll Carter II. His first great-grandchild, Elliott Louise Lawson, was born in November 2020. His only surviving brother is Francis Montgomery Carter of Alexandria, Virginia and lately of Asheville, NC. He was predeceased by his brothers James Newman Carter III ’42, Warwick Montgomery Carter ’44, Williams Carter, and Dr. Robert Lee Carter. Together Carter and his brothers owned and managed the Lee Heights Shops in the 4500 block of Lee Highway in Arlington for over 50 years. Carter was a member of the Chevy Chase Club, the Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, the Society of Colonial Wars in the District of Columbia, and the Lee Society. Portsmouth Abbey will keep Carroll and his family in their thoughts and prayers. May God grant him eternal rest.
P ORTSM O U T H A BB E Y S C HO OL
