The Eugene and University communities are mourning the passing of University sociology professor emeritus Lawrence “Larry” Carter@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Lawrence+Carter@@ earlier this month at age 68@@68, not 74    http://president.uoregon.edu/@@. Carter — survived by his wife Maile, his son, Christopher, and his daughter, Elizabeth — is remembered for his internationally applied work in demographics and his role in the local civil rights movement.

Academically, Carter is best known for the “Lee-Carter Model” of forecasting population growth and mortality, which he co-authored with Dr. Ronald D. Lee at the University of California, Berkeley,@@http://elsa.berkeley.edu/econ/faculty/lee_r.shtml@@ in the late 1980s@@www.economics.smu.edu.sg/events/Paper/WaiSum_Chan.pdf@@. Carter came to the University to study mathematics, but when his roommate, Herman Hope, suggested a demographics class to him, he quickly gained an interest in sociology. Carter would go on to teach courses in quantitative methods, social demography and advanced sociological methods.
Carter, like Hope, was among only a handful of African-Americans in the University graduate programs at the time. Longtime colleague and English professor emeritus Edwin Coleman@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Edwin+Coleman@@ recalled how he met Carter at the University during a time when diversity was not at all common.
“There were only a few of us on the faculty that looked like each other back then,” Coleman said. “You would bump into one another. It wasn’t hard.”
Yet Carter, who joined an even more select group when he went on to become a tenured professor, was unique in many other ways besides his ethnicity. He had problem-solving skills that people relied on. He was among the first commissioned black officers in the U.S. Air Force, and during the initial stages of the Cold War he was responsible for maintaining radar sites facing the Pacific perimeter of the Soviet Union. He was part of Volunteers In Service to America, a domestic public service program similar to AmeriCorps.@@http://www.ifound.org/effective_volunteers.php@@
Carter’s gifts and experiences ultimately led him to serve as an emissary between Eugene City Hall and the Black Panthers during the tumultuous late-1960s peak of the civil rights movement. He was on the city’s human rights commission and actively pursued integration in housing and employment.
“Larry was dedicated to the equal treatment of human beings, and he took a lot of time away from his studies to deal with things,” Hope said. “He gained the experience to deal with tough situations. The phone would ring at midnight, and he would be out the door. Larry was always calm and cool, but he still accomplished what he set out to do.”
Last year, Carter’s legacy of equal treatment manifested itself into the “Lawrence Carter Graduate Student Research Award.”@@http://sociology.uoregon.edu/@@ Its inaugural recipient, Madhurima Das,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Madhurima+Das@@ earned the award for her “H4 Women in Crisis” research, which centered around married Indian immigrant women who come to the U.S. on a dependent visa@@http://www.path2usa.com/h4-dependent-visa@@ and are not legally allowed to work. This type of project epitomizes what Carter always fought for.
Carter died in his home on Oct. 9 from complications related to multiple sclerosis, which he had been fighting for nearly 20 years. A memorial will be held in his honor Nov. 6 at Gerlinger Hall@@http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/architecture/oregon/gerlinger.html@@ from 1 to 4 p.m.
“Even though he had M.S., three days a week he would get on his wheelchair, go out to the bus and catch it to the YMCA,” said his wife, Maile Carter. “He was an active person right up until the end.”