Donald E. Carter
COLONEL DONALD E. “DON” CARTER MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
Don E. Carter was born November 9th, 1923, in Molson, Washington, to Earl and Olive Carter. He was raised in the Pacific Northwest. During the Depression, his father took their family to the mountains of Idaho, where they lived off the land in a cabin with a dirt floor. This was a wonderful experience for a young boy who loved to fish and roam the woods. When he was in fourth grade his father took a job near Bend, Oregon, as an accountant with the Brooks Scanlon Lumber Company. The family lived at a logging camp, sixty miles north of Bend, in a tent cabin. Don attended school in a boxcar that served as a classroom.
By his own admission, he was a rowdy student and a handful for the teacher in the one-room school. His parents eventually started Carter’s Appliances in Bend. Don graduated from high school and joined the United States Marine Corps in March 1943. He served in the Pacific Theater on the battleship USS Pennsylvania. In combat, Don manned a fifty caliber machine gun on a catwalk, beneath the ship’s big guns. He also served as an aide to the ship’s captain. After an honorable discharge in 1945, Don returned to the states and attended Oregon State University, combining college courses with military science as a cadet in the ROTC. Upon graduation in 1950, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and joined the Oregon National Guard. He and Glenna Bassett Carter married that same year. Don and Glenna raised a girl and two boys in Corvallis. Advancing in rank meant taking a leave of absence from his career as a public school educator to go on active duty with the military twice, once in 1956 and again in 1965. The family moved to Fort Benning, Georgia, during these years and lived in a travel trailer — close quarters for a family of five.
He retired from the military in 1983 as a colonel. He had served in the Oregon National Guard and Reserves for more than thirty years. As an educator, Don was first a teacher and then principal of two elementary schools, two middle schools and Corvallis High school. He retired in 1982 with thirty-two years of service to the Corvallis community.
Don loved life and lived every day to the fullest. He was a leader in the school community, and a man who was passionate about things he valued: public education, service to country, and love of family. Life in the Carter’s home was structured when there were jobs to be done, but exciting when time to recreate. Oregon was Don’s outdoor playground and family members were his companions as he hunted, fished, camped, and hiked our beautiful state.
Don Carter passed away in the fall of 1991 of heart failure. He left big tracks for his children to follow. Glenna Carter provided this scholarship in Don’s memory. It is fitting that it contributes to a young man or woman, in military service, desiring to serve their country and improve themselves
through higher education. Don would have heartily approved of their goals and would have been the first to encourage these young people by offering a helping hand.