William Carter Bowles Jr.

 

Died July 19, 1973

College: Davenport

My friend Carter grew up in Richmond Virginia and came to Lawrenceville in 1955. He was captain of the track team in his senior year. At Yale, he first roomed with Bill Bardel in Bingham, and they moved to Davenport in his sophomore year and teamed up with Jim Carney and Chris Wadley. In our last two years, our group of roommates joined with three other adjacent suites to create the Davenport Zoo.

Carter was active in a number of things. He notably ran on the track team, sang in the Apollo Glee Club first and then joined the Yale Glee Club in his junior year. That spring he was tapped for Skull and Bones and was named to be a Wiffenpoof

After Yale, Carter went on the Yale Law School. Following graduation from the Law School, he joined Covington and Burling in Washington, DC, married, and moved to Chevy Chase, Maryland, while Carter continued his work in Washington.

He and I, who lived in the area, renewed our friendship over the next few years. I remember with great sadness Carter’s last day.

“In the late 60’s, Carter came to Washington to work at a law firm downtown. We saw each other occasionally, both as couples and he and I for lunches. I’ll never forget the day he told me about buying that damned motorcycle. I was horrified, but he thought it was a great adventure!

It was a pretty July morning when Carter hit a patch of gravel on the Aqueduct Bridge outside of Washington. I wept that day, and at the funeral. Carter was a good friend, a fun roommate and a great guy. I miss him.”

—by Jim Carney

Carter and I lived across from each other on Glenbrook Rd in Washington, DC during the last days of WW 11 until 1947. Almost every afternoon we would meet each other and play various games of Cowboys and Indians on both sides of the street. On one occasion, there was a group of women being entertained on the front porch of a certain house and we took on the job of holding them up—guns and all. We were rewarded with more food and treats than we could carry home. Neither of us thought anything more about this until our parents advised us that we were in trouble. The evening newspaper had a front page headline story about 2 cowboys that held up Mrs. Truman, whose husband was the President of the United States, at an afternoon tea party given on Glenbrook Rd!!! Guess who they were?? Carter and I laughed about this many times.

—by John Vesey