No need for lengthy eulogies this day.
They just need to place his Holy Bibles at the altar, where you can thumb through the passages marked in red highlights by his hand. Those passages are testament to Bob Carter’s life and his lifelong faith in Jesus Christ.
“I will be reading from one of the Bibles,” says John McFadyen, who long has held his father-in-law with such respect and reverence. “One time I asked about angels, and three days later I received a typewritten letter with explanations and directions. This is an example of his fervent study and desire to learn and understand the ‘word.’”
Chaplain Robert Glenn Carter died Saturday.
He was 86.
Family and friends will come at 2 p.m. this day to Snyder Memorial Baptist Church to celebrate the life and ministry of this disciple of God, a man so devout in his faith that he shared with patients and families from 1971 to 2003 as chaplain at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. Or perhaps on a Sunday morning as interim pastor at Faymont Baptist Church, Hillside Baptist Church and the Church of the Covenant.
When God called, Bob Carter was there.
When Jesus needed another disciple, Bob Carter never turned his back.
“Chap was not a man that brought attention to himself,” McFadyen says. “He was a regular guy. I was fortunate enough to hear him several times in the pulpit or performing a wedding service or a funeral. When he started to speak, it made you sit up. It made you straighten your back for good posture, or it made you kind of move a little closer to him because you knew the Lord was speaking through him. He made you say, ‘I want some of that.’ Or ‘I want what he has.’”
‘A true man of God’
Bob Carter was serving at Bethel Baptist Church in Chapel Hill in 1971 before taking his leave to arrive in this city as chaplain for the medical center, and where in 1987 he would begin the Volunteer Chaplaincy program that included 14 members of the local clergy.
“Chaplain Bob Carter was a true man of God,” retired Chaplain Diana Smith says on the tribute page of Bob Carter’s obituary. “I worked alongside him for 31 years. He was the first chaplain at CFV, and I was the first secretary. I later went back to school at his urging, earning my master of divinity and master of theology, and I became a full-time chaplain.
“Chaplain Carter was a man of integrity, kindness and was the best boss I ever had. I never heard him raise his voice. He loved his family, and he loved God. Chaplain Carter saw in me what I never saw; he encouraged me to use the gift God had placed in me.
“I will miss him, a friendship for over 40 years, but I know I will see him again,” Chaplain Smith would write. “He is where he lived his life to be. Death is not the end for Chaplain Bob Carter, who touched the lives of so many. He leaves a legacy. He lives on in the hearts of his precious wife, Carolyn, and his children and grandchildren and great-grand.”
Chaplain Carter was compassionate when it came to being there with his pastoral care at the medical center.
A shoulder to lean on
“The chaplain’s job is a 24/7 position,” John McFadyen, 58, will remind us this day. “Often, he would get called away from the house. It may be during dinner, it may be during a UNC ballgame or it may be after a long day. No matter when it was, he never complained. He would grab his Bible and go to comfort someone who lost a loved one, a family member whose child was just in an accident, or maybe a nurse or a physician who had just witnessed something traumatic. He was there, and he was a comforting presence.”
He came to know a patient’s anxiety.
He knew a family’s lament, and a family’s grief.
He would come to know his own sorrow when daughter Brenda Carter McFadyen died from lung and heart failure at age 31 on May 17, 1998.
“There were a lot of prayers,” John McFadyen says. “He handled it like everything else when he went to the hospital. He prayed and turned to the Lord for guidance and comfort. Our kids were 2 and 3. I’m sure he was hurting deeply. But he always put Jesus first, others second and yourself third.”
His was a shoulder to lean on for a wife, a mother, two daughters, a son and grandchildren, and a son-in-law, too.
Your support helps ensure a more informed community. Donate today.
Bob Carter was a gentle man.
He was passionate about athletics and loved his Atlanta Braves and a football Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium with his family and cheering on the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Or 18 holes with golfing pals.
He loved his recliner by his desk at his Clairway home, holding Bible studies, and Nick and Chap, the Boston terriers who followed Bob Carter every step of his way.
He was devoted to his wife of 61 years, and Carolyn Carter devoted to him and by her husband’s bedside in these recent days just for Bob Carter to know she was there.
‘Step of faith’
And above all, Bob Carter was a disciple of Christ.
“Many times, we envy the life of others because of their fame, fortune or position,” says the Rev. Bruce Herrmann, associate pastor at Snyder Memorial Baptist Church. “Bob Carter was a man you envied because of his faith. Witnessing his love for the Lord, his peace and contentment, you wanted what he had.
“Bob stepped away from a great job to attend seminary and faithfully follow God’s path for him in ministry. It would be easy to do that as a single man, but Bob had a wife and family to consider. Yet together, he and Carolyn stepped out in faith and trusted God to meet their needs. That step of faith and sacrifice resulted in thousands experiencing the comfort and peace Chaplain Bob provided at their bedside at Cape Fear Valley Hospital. He brought peace, comfort and hope not only to patients but to hospital staff.
“Bob used his gifts of preaching, teaching and caring,” Herrmann says. “His devotion to the Lord and his church benefited each of us who were touched by our dear friend. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on through each of us and a stellar chaplaincy program at Cape Fear.”
Epilogue
No need for lengthy eulogies this day.
You’ll find testament to Bob Carter’s life in the red, highlighted scripture passages by his own hand and testimony to his uncompromising faith in his Lord and savior.
But a Christian soldier, worthy of remembrance all the same.
“I can only imagine how special his entrance into heaven was,” a granddaughter will remind us this day, “and I know that Aunt Brenda was first in line with open arms waiting to welcome him home.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.