Jan. 22, 1938–March 28, 2020
Tucked in the woods atop Colgate’s campus, Chapel House is a place of reflection for its visitors. Director John Ross Carter was there to welcome them for nearly 40 years. “This is a place where you can get some mental space,” he told the Chronicle of Higher Education in 1995.
Carter cared deeply about making Chapel House an accessible place of faith for people from around the globe. “He made Colgate a crossroads for leading international scholars, practitioners, musicians, and spiritual leaders,” the Colgate Scene wrote upon his retirement in 2013.
Also a professor of the study of the great religions of the world as well as philosophy and religion, Carter began his tenure at Colgate in 1972, his research focusing on Buddhist and Christian studies. An educator who wanted to show students the magic of learning abroad, he led study groups to Sri Lanka, India, Japan, and Scotland. Prior to teaching at Colgate, Carter earned degrees from Baylor University, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, King’s College in London, and Harvard University.
In Chapel House, the classroom, and abroad, Carter made others feel accepted. When Omid Safi, now a professor at Duke University, interviewed for his former position in Colgate’s philosophy and religion department, his time with Carter persuaded him to teach on the Hill. “For 30-plus years, John has worked diligently to create an environment where you treat everyone as a full and dignified human being; and where all of the world’s religious traditions are respected and engaged,” he told the Scene in 2005.
Late in life, Carter edited On Living Life Well, a collection of talks by Buddhist scholars he encountered on his study group trips to Sri Lanka. In the introduction, he wrote: “We tend quickly to realize, when once we take the time to reflect thoroughly upon our day-to-day decisions and activities, that there is very little in our experiences in getting on in life that is inevitable.” Carter lived his life as an example of this sentiment.
He died at age 81 at his home in Hamilton. He is survived by his wife, Sandra; two children; and their families.