The Way We Were: A.M. Carter was quiet leader in Augusta business, church, civic arenas

Aug. 12—A.M. Carter's story was a familiar one.

He was someone who came to Augusta to take a job. Did well. Did a lot, and would leave the town better than he found it.

When he died in August 1975, The Chronicle editorially saluted his "sterling character" and outstanding service to the community in his profession, his church and his elective positions.

All these achievements A. Murray Carter did modestly but consistently, and for the most part, quietly. He avoided publicity and controversy, but never work.

Carter was a native of Paris, Ky., who came to Georgia in the early 1900s to attend and graduate Clark College in Atlanta. He also studied business accounting and statistics at Columbia University in New York, and even did a stint in the U.S. Army during the World War I era. After an honorable discharge, he took a job with the Standard Life Insurance Co. in Atlanta.

He worked hard and did well, eventually being promoted to head of the Statistical and Actuarial Department.

In 1930, he took a department manager job with Augusta's Pilgrim Health & Life Insurance Co., an east central Georgia, Black-owned business powerhouse, and quickly became one of its leaders.

He became comptroller, then director, then vice president and secretary. He would retire in 1968 but return as Pilgrim's chairman of the board of directors.

Pilgrim had a tradition of sharing its business leadership with community and political roles in Augusta, and Carter was a good example.

He became a member of the Advisory Committee for the Georgia Railroad Bank. He was an executive committee and council member for the regional Methodist Church. and also served on its Council of World Services.

He was on the board of the local Girl Scouts and his contributions to the Boy Scouts saw him honored with its Silver Beaver Award in 1964.

He was chosen as a member of the National Advisory Council for the Small Business Administration.

Carter was also a longtime member and treasurer with the Board of Trustees of Clark College, and was treasurer of the National Insurance Association of America for 15 years.

He was a Mason, a Shriner and member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

If there was a chance Augustans did not cross paths with him in these roles, they knew him for his service on the Richmond County Board of Education. In 1967 Carter became the second Black person to win a school board seat, and although the community went through that period with its challenges of integration and change, Carter was called one of the most stabilizing influences on the board.

He died in 1975 at age 78, respected and admired by so many, The Chronicle editorial page called his passing a "distinct loss to the community."

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