David S. Carter *52

David Carter, professor emeritus of mathematics at Oregon State University, died peacefully Dec. 28, 2018, at the age of 92.

Born in 1926 in Victoria, British Columbia, he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1946 and a master’s degree in 1948. Then he entered the Princeton Graduate School and earned a Ph.D. in mathematical physics in 1952.

At Princeton Carter was a member of Project Matterhorn, which dealt with the mathematics of thermonuclear weapons, and for which he worked on programming the ENIAC, the first general-purpose computer. From 1952 to 1957, he was at the Los Alamos National Laboratory working on nuclear fusion reactor research. In 1957, he became a United States citizen.

After Los Alamos Carter held faculty positions at the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley, before becoming a long-term professor of mathematics at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. He was an accomplished musician, avid golfer, boater, and a bridge player, as well as a recreational scuba diver and pilot.

Carter was predeceased in 2012 by his wife of 62 years, Ruth. He is survived by their four children and eight grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.