Priscilla Dunn Carter

1938 - 2018
Priscilla Dunn Carter, age 79, died at home in New York City on January 4, 2018 after a long illness. Born to Abby Redfield Neill and Gordon Campbell Dunn on June 26, 1938, Mrs. Carter grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey. She graduated from Millburn High School where she was Co-Editor of the school newspaper and a cheerleader. Mrs. Carter pursued her literary interests at Barnard College, where she graduated with a degree in English in 1960.

Mrs. Carter met her future husband in a library at Harvard University when she dropped a book filled with bobby pins marking important pages. Richard E. Carter, a yacht designer and ocean racer, helped her pick up the bobby pins scattered on the floor. They married in January 1962, and moved to the seaside town of Nahant, Massachusetts, where they raised four children.

While teaching English at Boston University, Mrs. Carter worked on her doctoral dissertation on the concept of the sublime in English Romantic poetry. She also served on the Executive Committee of the Opera Company of Boston, helping commission a children's opera, The Fisherman and His Wife. She was co-founder of the Nahant Arts Association and the Nahant Friends of the Library, an avid photographer, and received a citation from the Massachusetts Senate for public service and contribution to the arts in 1975.

Mrs. Carter moved with her children to California in 1980 after her divorce. She settled in the Oakland hills and taught English at The College Preparatory School. She subsequently earned a law degree in 1986, at the age of 48, at the University of California, Davis.

Mrs. Carter returned to the east coast to join the firm of Millbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy in New York City. She moved to the firm Baker, Nelson and Williams before opening her solo trust and estates practice in 1995. Despite her late entry into the field of law, her practice thrived for 20 years. Her devotion to her law practice and helping her clients was only exceeded by her devotion to her children and grandchildren.

With a deep love of the arts and nature, Mrs. Carter enjoyed literature, art, film, hiking, biking, and sailing with family and friends. She often hiked the east ridge trail in Redwood Park, California, and dined regularly with a literary group of Barnard classmates in New York. She particularly enjoyed visiting the armour exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History with her grandchildren.

Mrs. Carter is survived by her children, Catherine, Susan (Marco), Lucy (Philip), and Eliot, and her grandchildren, Jack, Roger, Nicolas, Isabel, and Francesca.

A memorial service will be held at Christ Church in Short Hills, New Jersey on January 27th at 3:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, please call 212-304-7212 to make donations, in memory of Priscilla Carter, to Columbia University's Department of Neurology.