Norman Stewart Carr

Norman Stewart Carr died in the company of family on March 15, 2025, leaving behind the life he so enjoyed six days before his 89th birthday. He was the son of Robert Kenneth Carr and Olive Grabill. He was born in Norman, Oklahoma, but grew up in Hanover, New Hampshire, where his father was chair of the political science department at Dartmouth College before he became President of Oberlin College.
In high school, Carr was a state track champion and played varsity football. Throughout his later life he took pleasure playing tennis and watching his children and grandchildren's athletic endeavors. Having grown up in the foothills of mountains, Carr enjoyed the outdoors, including time spent hiking in New England and walking the beaches of Point Connett, a waterside enclave near Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.
Carr was a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law school. He practiced law in Akron, Ohio, first with the firm of Brouse McDowell, and later as a senior partner with the firm Roetzel & Andress. A litigator, he particularly enjoyed the First Amendment cases he successfully argued on behalf of the Akron Beacon Journal in the early 1980s. This work and that for the various tire companies based in Akron became the basis for articles in the American Bar Association Journal. Carr was a founding member of the Akron Roundtable and served as a member of the Akron Art Museum's Board of Trustees, two examples of his commitment to Akron's civic life.
When he retired in 2000, and moved permanently to Washington, DC, Carr took up photography. Long an aficionado of street photography and imagery by artists as different as Weegee (Arthur Fellig) and Walker Evans, Carr was eager to see if he could create photographs that would arrest the attention of others who appreciated this medium. Carr's work incorporated various reflected images from streetscapes, and ranged from black and white photographs to lush, color-saturated images. During the ten years that he committed himself to taking and printing photographs, his photographs were featured in numerous group exhibitions and in a major show, Sight Unseen, at the Mexican Cultural Institute in 2004.
A loving and supportive husband and father, Norman Carr is survived by his wife Carolyn Kinder, whom he married in June 1961 and with whom he shared a love of art, travel, and family. He is also survived by two children, Christopher Kinder Carr (Phoebe) and Courtney Carr Hamilton (Nathan); five granddaughters; two younger brothers, Elliott G. Carr and Robert C. Carr and their wives; and numerous nieces, cousins, and their families.
Norman Carr is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, DC. A celebration of his life will be held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, in late May.