Yolo County CA Obituary Project Obituaries.....CARTER , Everett  November 23 2002
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Peggy B. Perazzo pbperazzo@comcast.net July 17, 2004, 12:08 am

"The Davis Enterprise," Thursday, December 12, 2002
Everett Carter

Everett Carter, who had the scholastic epiphany that homegrown optimism
determined 19th century American literature and yet was a personal fan of the
eternal pessimist Mark Twain, died of viral pneumonia on Nov. 23, 2002, in
Davis. Born in New York City on April 28, 1919, he was 83.

A versatile scholar and educator who served the University of California as an
administrator at the Davis campus, for the Office of the President and in
France, Carter was also an expert on Longfellow, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman,
Hawthorne, Poe and William Dean Howells.

His book, "Howells and the Age of Realism" was awarded the Commonwealth Gold
Medal for nonfiction.

Following graduation from high school in New York City, Carter attended UCLA to
earn bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in English, finishing in 1947.
While an undergraduate in the late 1930s, he met his future wife of 62 years,
Winifred Cecile Doudna. They married in 1940.

As Carter continued through graduate school, his wife supported the family by
teaching, while he brought in income by writing song lyrics for Universal
Pictures as well as writing publications for employees and the public for
Southern Counties Gas Co.

His first faculty job was at Claremont Men's College where he taught for three
years before joining UC Berkeley as an assistant professor in 1949.

During his career, Carter was given several national honors that advanced his
scholarship. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to live in Switzerland in
1952-53, where he wrote the Howells book that won him the Commonwealth Gold
Medal in 1954. Later, he was awarded another Guggenheim in 1961-62.

He also had Fulbright grants to study at the University of Copenhagen in 1954-55
and 1961-62, and the University of Strasbourg in 1966-67. He attended the Nice
Seminar in American Studies in 1957-1961 and 1966. He also received a scholar
grant to attend the University of Hyderabad in India in 1964.

After eight years at UC Berkeley, Carter was a visiting lecturer at Harvard
University for a year in 1958.

In 1959, Chancellor Emil Mrak brought Carter to UC Davis to serve as the campus'
first vice chancellor, and on occasion, as acting chancellor. The vice
chancellor position was created by Mrak as part of his effort to develop Davis
into a general UC campus.

The UC Office of the President came calling in 1964, when Clark Kerr named
Carter first as his special assistant in 1962, and then to the position of
university dean of research in 1964, which he held for a year.

After his administrative stint during the '60s, Carter returned to the Davis
campus to teach and write. He wrote "The American Idea," published in 1977,
which set forth the hypothesis that the idea of progress and essential goodness
of man determined the form of much American literature. In the book, Carter said
that the styles of many of America's greatest 19th century writers were often a
function of their acceptance or rejection of the official optimism of the time.

Throughout his career -- including after his formal retirement in 1989, Carter
was a prolific writer and scholar. He also excelled at storytelling, and was
fond of reciting short stories by Mark Twain at interdenominational holiday
parties held by UC Davis Professor Emeritus Calvin Schwabe and his wife.

A lover of culture and art, Carter was an opera buff who regularly attended the
San Francisco Opera season. He and his wife also enjoyed living in and visiting
France and Italy. Later in his career, he spent two two-year stints directing
UC's Education Abroad Program in Bordeaux.

"He was a bit of a Francophile, an old-fashioned gentleman, and someone who
appreciated good wines and good food," said colleague Michael Hoffman, professor
emeritus of English.

Survivors include his wife Cecile of Davis; two sons, Dale and his wife Barbara
of Sacramento and Timothy and his wife Joclyn of New York City; three grandsons,
Jeremy of Santa Rosa and Jonathan and Ben of New York; and a granddaughter,
Rachel Mayer.

No memorial service is planned.


Additional Comments:
Submitted with the permission of the "The Davis Enterprise," 315 G Street,
Davis, CA 95616.

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