The Rev. Dr. Victor Howard Carpenter Jr.

The Reverend Dr. Vic Carpenter Jr.—distinguished parish minister and tireless advocate for the disadvantaged and marginalized—died on 1 June 2018, aged 88.

Throughout his ministry, Vic was always awake—in compassion, preaching, and action—to the suffering of others. In South Africa, he and spouse Cathe worked against apartheid and he was sometimes a secret courier of international messages and money for legal and social aid to apartheid victims. In the United States, the Rev’d Mr. Carpenter was active in a breathtaking number and variety of social justice causes and organizations, opposing racial, gendered, and economic discrimination, the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, the death penalty, police violence, unjust immigration restrictions, and exploitation of hotel and hospital workers.

He promoted prison reform, reproductive freedom, same sex marriage, disability rights, and full educational access. He lost track of the number of his civil disobedience arrests. In 2011 the UUA gave him the Award for Distinguished Service to the cause of Unitarian Universalism.

Victor Howard Carpenter Jr. was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on 23 October 1929 to Victor Sr. and Pauline Carpenter. After service in the U.S. Marine Corps (1951–54), including two years in Korea, he completed his undergraduate work at Boston University in 1955 with a B.A. in English, and then earned an S.T.B. in 1959 from Harvard Divinity School. In 1987, Mr. Carpenter would receive an S.T.D. honoris causa from Starr King School.

Mr. Carpenter was ordained on 28 September 1958 by Christ Church, Unitarian in Dorchester, MA. Parish settlements followed in Norwell, MA (1959–62), Capetown, South Africa (1962–67), Philadelphia (1968–76), Boston (Arlington Street, 1976–87), and San Francisco (1987–93). His final settlement was at the First Church in Belmont, MA, where he was elected minister emeritus on retirement in 2002.

At his death, Victor was survived by his spouse of 60+ years, Cathe, children Tyler and Melissa, grandchildren Simone and Milo, and brother John. His daughter Gracia had died earlier.