D. Rae Carpenter
Experimental Physics and applied mathematics are the fields of teaching that were begun for Salemite Delma Rae Carpenter, Jr. when he entered Roanoke College in Salem after graduating from Andrew Lewis High School in 1945. After earning his B.S. degree in 1949 from Roanoke College and his Masters in 1951 from Cornell University, he began his teaching career at Virginia Military Institute. He received his Ph.D. from Virginia in 1957 and was a visiting professor at the United States Military Academy and Auburn University. He presently serves as an adjunct professor at James Madison University.
Since 1993, Dr. Carpenter’s summers have found him teaching nineteen short courses, three honors programs for talented high school students, six Governor’s Schools for the Gifted (high school), a course for teachers of Henrico County Schools, as well as Lecture Demonstrative courses for Canadian teachers at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario; the XXIV International Physics Olympics at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia; and for junior and senior high school teachers at Nanjing Normal University in Nanjing PRC.
Dr. Carpenter has also found time to pursue research with the U. S. Naval Weapons Laboratory, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the General Electric Company’s Industry Control Division. During the summer from 1953-74, through the VMI Research Laboratories, he did contract research for Henry Diamond Laboratories, U. S. Army and was the Deputy Director of the VMI Labs (1963-65) and Director (1965-85; 1993-94).
Rae was co-editor of the Apparatus Section of The Physics Teacher, 1982-85 and co-authored manuals for the teachings of college physics. He is a member of various science associations, having served president of the Virginia Academy of Science in 1969-70 and ion the Research and Development Advisory Committees of the State Council of higher Education (1969-85).
D. Rae Carpenter, Jr. married Jane Grant Carpenter and has three children: Delma Rae, III; Gordon Grant; Barbara Elizabeth. Though retired, Lexington, Virginia remains his home where he is still active in the Lexington Presbyterian Church and the Rotary Club. In 1997-98 he will serve as the Rotary Club’s District Governor.
In recognition of his outstanding career achievements, in 1996 Delma Rae Carpenter, Jr. was among the charter members inducted into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame established by the Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association.
