In Memoriam

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 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.

JAMES CRAY MEADE ’45

James Cray Meade, an energy and civic leader, died Monday, August 3, 2020, at his home with family by his side.

James was born in Pittsburgh, PA, raised in Uniontown, PA, and graduated from Portsmouth Priory School in Rhode Island. After enlisting in the U.S. Navy and serving as a radio radar technician, he graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in Chemical Engineering, followed by a graduate degree in business from Babson Institute in Boston.

He met his wife, Virginia Wood from Mexico City, while working in the oil and gas industry in Texas. They eventually moved to Oklahoma City and raised five daughters. James was an avid sportsman. He encouraged his daughters, later his sons-in-law, and grandchildren, to snow ski, sail, scuba dive, and fly fish. Family was important to him. He organized many trips around the world, always with an educational component. He was a true Renaissance Man and could discuss almost any topic with expertise and enthusiasm.

In 1957, James partnered with Snee and Eberly, from Pennsylvania, and his brother, Bud, to create an oil and gas company, now known as Meade Energy Corporation. He was a well-respected operator in Oklahoma and instrumental in the development of the Arkoma Basin.

His love of history, education, and art was legendary, which led to his generous support of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Virginia and he shared a strong interest in the arts, and James was integral in the merger of the Oklahoma Art Center and Oklahoma Museum of Art. He served as the first president of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, then continued as a lifetime board member. Giving back to the community was important to him, and he established a lecture series that attracts speakers from around the world. He was honored with the Stanley Draper Award in 2011 and as King of the Beaux Arts Ball in 2013.

James is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Virginia Wood Meade, and their children. The Portsmouth Abbey community offers its prayers and condolences to the Meade family.

BOB LEWIS, JR. ’63

Bob Lewis Jr., died on March 23, 2021, at the age of 76. Bob was the 2021 recipient of the USGA’s Bob Jones Award and a veteran of a combined six Walker Cup Matches as a competitor and captain; he was three-time USGA runner-up, including the 1980 U.S. Amateur. Lewis, who competed in 31 USGA championships, was one of the game’s best amateurs to have never claimed a USGA title. Nevertheless, his skill, integrity, competitiveness and sportsmanship made the Ohio native one of the most respected people in the amateur game.

Lewis, who received the Bob Jones Award on March 19, played on four victorious USA Walker Cup Teams – 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1987 – compiling an impressive 10-4 overall mark. In the 1983 Match at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake) in England, he and partner Jim Holtgrieve, the man who defeated him in the inaugural 1981 U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, posted a 7-and-6 victory in the first foursomes (alternate-shot) session, a record margin that stood until 2017 when Collin Morikawa and Norman Xiong registered an 8-and-7 decision in the opening foursomes session of the USA’s 19-7 win at The Los Angeles Country Club.

Lewis later captained the USA in the 2003 and 2005 Matches, losing the former at Ganton Golf Club in England and then winning the latter at Chicago Golf Club, with both matches decided by a single point. Lewis called that 2005 competition “the greatest Walker Cup that ever was played.” The two-day event came down to the last singles match after Great Britain and Ireland had positioned itself for a possible tie and retention of the Cup. Nigel Edwards, whose chip-in on the 17th hole two years earlier had led to GB&I’s win, watched his 35-foot birdie putt just miss on the 18th green at Chicago Golf Club. Jeff Overton then calmly two-putted from 18 feet to secure the win for the USA Team, which also included Brian Harman, J.B. Holmes, Michael Putnam, Anthony Kim, Matt Every, Kyle Reifers, Nicholas Thompson, Lee Williams and Billy Hurley III.

“I’m so proud of my team,” Lewis said after the 2005 competition. “It’s the way you dream about going out as captain.”

Lewis was born in Warren, OH, and was influenced to take up the game by his mother, who carried a 1 handicap. Although he played in numerous junior tournaments, Lewis excelled in football and baseball at Portsmouth Abbey School, which did not have a golf team at the time.

When he enrolled at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL in 1963, Lewis decided to re-engage with competitive golf by walking on to the team. After graduating, he claimed the 1968 Ohio Amateur on his 24th birthday. He also helped run the family business, Welded Tubes Inc., a steel tubing manufacturing company that his father founded in 1958.

In 1970, Lewis decided to give professional golf a try and earned his playing privileges for 1971 at the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School. In his rookie season of 1971, Lewis made eight of 12 cuts. By the end of the 1974 season, Lewis, who enjoyed limited success in the play-for-pay ranks (he made 26 of 47 cuts in official events), quit professional golf and returned to the family business. Though he won the 1972 Hope of Tomorrow Open, an unofficial event, Lewis’ best finish in four years on the PGA Tour was a tie for eighth in the Shrine-Robinson Open Golf Classic.

He would find much more success as an amateur, once he completed the three-year process of reinstatement in 1978. That same year, he won the Ohio Open as an amateur, the first to do so since Jack Nicklaus in 1957, and qualified for the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills Country Club.

Two years later, he reached the championship match of the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club of North Carolina, losing the 36hole final to future major champion Hal Sutton, 14 years his junior. The next year at The Olympic Club, he advanced to the semifinals, falling to Brian Lindley, 3 and 2. Later that year, he advanced to the final of the inaugural U.S. Mid-Amateur. In 1984, Lewis again reached the final of the U.S. Mid-Amateur. That year, he was the stroke-play medalist in both the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur. In 1986 at Shoal Creek, he again reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur, losing to eventual champion Stewart “Buddy” Alexander, 6 and 4.

Those results earned him berths in the Walker Cup Match, where he distinguished himself as a fierce competitor. In 1981 at Cypress Point Club, he lost his Saturday singles match to future U.S. Senior Open champion Roger Chapman. He won both of his singles matches in 1983 at Hoylake as the USA rallied in the final session to pull out a three-point victory. Two years later at Pine Valley, he registered the decisive 13th point in his Sunday singles match as the USA pulled out a two-point win.

Besides the Walker Cup competitions, Lewis also represented his country in a pair of World Amateur Team Championships, helping the four-player team that also included Holtgrieve, Nathaniel Crosby and Jay Sigel to the championship in 1982 at Lausanne (Switzerland) Golf Club, and finishing second in 1986 at Lagunita Country Club in Venezuela.

The selections to those USA Teams as well as his high finishes in the U.S. Amateur enabled Lewis to earn seven invitations to the Masters Tournament, where he finished as low amateur in 1987. He also qualified for three U.S. Opens (1978, 1983, 1986).

That summed up Lewis’ golf life – fiercely competitive on the course but affable off it. Five-time USGA champion and nine-time USA Walker Cup competitor Jay Sigel told Global Golf Post: “You could sense his keenness for competition. Afterward, the intensity would melt away; he would have a glass of wine and laugh.”

His character was also exemplified by service in his local community, where he volunteered as the head golf coach at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio. Lewis served as an important role model who was tireless in his behind-the-scenes efforts to build long-term financial support for the program.

Additionally, Lewis was a member of the board of the Northeastern Ohio chapter of Boys Hope Girls Hope, a program that provides at-risk youths with support to develop into successful adults. He also played a leading role in establishing the “Values and Visions” education endowment in support of Catholic education in his home county, which has provided more than $2 million to support local education opportunities.

Lewis was inducted into the Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2002 and into the Northern Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

All of this led to Lewis receiving the Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s highest honor, given annually to an individual who demonstrates the personal character and respect for the game.

The Portsmouth Abbey community offers prayers for Bob and extends it deepest sympathy to the Lewis family.

– excerpted from article by David Shefter, senior staff writer for the USGA.

ROBERT RAINWATER

Robert Stephen Rainwater, 72, died peacefully at his home in Providence on March 11, 2021. Bob was born in New York City on July 27, 1948, the son of Leo James and Emma Louise (Smith) Rainwater. His father, a physicist at Columbia University, shared the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics. Bob grew up in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, where he graduated from high school in 1966.

He attended Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, graduating in 1970 with a degree in physics. Afterwards, he attended Teachers College at Columbia, graduating in 1972. Upon graduation, Bob embarked on a career teaching high school physics. After spending 12 years in the Connecticut public school system, he joined the Portsmouth Abbey School faculty where he taught for 30 years, until his retirement in 2015. He made Conceptual and AP Physics come alive for generations of students, and he developed the Advanced Topics course at the request of a handful of students who wanted to continue with physics beyond the extant program. One student remarked, “Despite the hours of preparation for this class, he relished the challenge. It was an opportunity for him to learn and investigate along with his students.” In addition, Bob was a pioneer in introducing the Physics-First program, which many schools adopted years later.

Outside the classroom Bob instituted and moderated many activities: the Annual Boat Contest in the Winter Garden, the Astronomy Club, Future Problem Solvers, Robotics and the Russian Club among them. On Halloween he would read a scary story to the students during lunch. Over the years he also mentored students who competed in the Rhode Island State Science Fairs. Several, including Brian D’Urso ’94 and Sam Choi ’16, moved up to national competitions. Every year he would bring in his father’s Nobel Prize Medal to inspire his students. As advisor to the Astronomy Club he often took to the podium during school assemblies to drum up enthusiasm for an upcoming celestial spectacle. Bob was loved by his students for his love of learning, natural curiosity and kindness. A passionate and dedicated teacher, his family can recall his many late nights devoted to figuring out some better way to present some particular aspect of the subject that he felt his students were struggling to understand. In the 2016 yearbook, which was dedicated to him, students wrote,” He was passionate about science, and his energy and enthusiasm for his discipline were infectious. Who doesn’t remember conducting the slinky experiment in the hallway?!”

In addition to his Abbey work, Bob was an avid gardener, and he enjoyed biking, often cycling the 54-mile round trip from his home in Barrington to Portsmouth Abbey School.

A voracious reader, he consumed science fiction, fantasy and the classics. He also displayed his artistic temperament with, among other things, his elaborate sand castles in the summer, gingerbread houses at Christmastime, and a privet hedge maze in his yard.

Sam Choi ’16 said of his former teacher and mentor, “Mr. Rainwater was always an inspiring man. His Conceptual Physics class inspired me to enter the science fair with a project on the tidal locking mechanism. He helped me unlock my potential in the science field and further fascinated me in his Advanced Topics in Physics class… I will continue to miss him.”

Two of Bob’s daughters, Sarah and Nellie, graduated from Portsmouth Abbey in 1995 and 1998, respectively.

Portsmouth Abbey School extends its prayers and sincere condolences to Bob’s family. May he rest in peace.