Obituary

Carter Eaton Dorrell

Born August 30, 1929, Sante Fe, NM 

Died December 8th, 2022, Boulder, CO

Carter Dorrell was a gregarious man with a deeply curious nature who led a long life fully lived.

Carter could talk to anyone. He always had a new joke to share and loved telling stories. If you were out with him, and he suddenly disappeared, you needed only to look back down the path where he had inevitably struck up a conversation with someone just passed. He enjoyed sharing his experiences and learning from others of every background. Carter was charming. As a boy he wandered into a photography studio and convinced the proprietor to take his photo. On his Facebook page in place of a degree, he said that he “studied girls” at the University of Colorado. During his travels around the world, he got himself invited into many a bistro kitchen, mom and pop winery, and even to the rural Indian village of a New Delhi taxi driver. If he pulled up next to a car with a dog in the window, he would bark.

One was immediately struck by Carter’s sharp mind. He tells of how he and a friend, Bob Mecklenburg, would simply decide to invent something when they were bored at IBM, a pastime Carter continued into old age. He holds multiple patents vital to early broadcasting and the development of the computer. Early in his career, the government tapped his abilities, and he was seconded for code breaking. He was a Grand Master in Bridge with over a million points. Carter was a prodigious financial investor, enjoying the application of mathematics to this hobby. He was a natural teacher and taught sailing, beekeeping and photography. He never did anything half measure.

His spirit of adventure fed deep wanderlust. He and his parents, Frances Eaton Dorrell and Carter “Victor” Dorrell, moved to Boulder, Colorado when he was a boy. His description of running free among the young families of his College Hill neighborhood sounds idyllic. At 16, he got a summer job on a riverboat traveling the length of the Mississippi. Soon, he graduated to riding the rails as a hobo, just catching the end of the steam train era as he followed his heart, criss-crossing the country over several summers working as a hired hand. He had to give up these adventures for summer school when he worked ski patrol Spring semester during college at the University of Colorado. Soon after graduation in 1953 with a degree in Engineering (MS '71), Carter married his fellow student and childhood friend Nancy Merriam Hill. A job at IBM required they move to upstate New York where they quickly started a family. Carter escaped the pinch of young fatherhood in the jazz clubs of New York City and by racing cars on the weekends. IBM transferred him at least annually for years. Many times, Carter would commute to a new office by piloting his own small plane. Finally in 1967, still with IBM, Carter settled back in Boulder for good where he retired young. At midlife, he met the love of his life, Anne Rein’l Beck, and together they enjoyed years of adventures skiing, sailing and traveling extensively. Sailing the Pacific Northwest was a particular favorite as was discovering small, authentic restaurants across Europe. He covered the globe in his explorations making friends wherever he went. 

Music was a primary love. Old photographs often show him with an instrument, and he studied classical Spanish guitar into his late 80s. His love of jazz solidified young, but he enjoyed many genres. He had a beautiful singing voice filling the house with Irish folk songs and singing in a Barbershop Quartet with his son Daniel. Near the end of his life, he sang the Beale Street Blues recalling the joy of visiting the blues clubs and honky tonks in Memphis and all along the Mississippi river. For much of his life he crewed and acted in theater and opera. A virtuoso soloist could bring tears of admiration to his eyes, and in his last years, he listened to the Three Tenors on repeat.

Gardening was a life-long pleasure. Carter’s version of a midlife crisis was to throw out all his suits and buy a ranch north of Boulder which he populated with a Noah’s Ark of farm animals and an exquisite vegetable garden. He grew grapes and hops to support his interest in wine and beer making. Carter once wrote Anne’s name in fertilizer in his lawn. You could see it for years until he slowly crowded the yard with ever-larger vegetable beds. This passion dove-tailed perfectly with his love of cooking and good food. He would say nothing beats a fresh tomato hot from the summer sun.

The importance of family grew as Carter got older. Twenty-two was too young to become a husband and father for charming, adventuresome Carter, and his family shows these fault lines.  His dreams and varied interests often took him away from his wife and their brood of five. But no one lives a perfect life, and even as a young father, his children recall the joys of adventures with Dad: learning to shoot a rifle to protect the garden they had freshly seeded from hungry birds; driving his MG along a dirt road; attending the National Western Stock Show; showing livestock at the Boulder County Fair with 4-H; helping make wine by crushing grapes under little feet and taste-testing the array of each year’s wine blends no matter your age. In the second half of his life, Carter grew to become a sweet, caring and supportive father. He shared his love of skiing and fine food. Traveling together was a great pleasure. His descendants carry on many of his passions. Among them, there are many musicians, foodies, thespians, photographers, gardeners, adventure sports enthusiasts, and math minds. Almost all are avid travelers.

The isolation of the COVID pandemic was not kind to a sociable guy like Carter. His health slowly failed as the ailments piled up. However, no matter how narrow and difficult his life seemed, he approached each day with gusto. When death neared, he wondered, “but how can I leave this beautiful life?” 

Now that he has left us, we miss his stories, his music, his love. It is comforting to imagine he has started his next great adventure. As a bit of star light, he is visiting his dad and mom, all those friends who left before him, the special places he loved and new places he never quite made it to. Knowing him, he is surely somewhere surrounded by people telling stories and jokes, sharing good food fresh from a celestial garden. We hope someday we will travel with him again.

Carter is survived by his estranged wife Nancy Dorrell, his life partner Anne Beck, his children James, Robert, Daniel, Cynthia and Pamela, Anne’s three children, his seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

To get in touch or share stories and photos of Carter, please contact us at CarterEatonDorrell.1929.2022@gmail.com 

We have already posted many here:

https://sites.google.com/view/cartereatondorrell/home

James:

Remembering some of the the good things. My father taught me how to be adventurous. letting me hold the pilots wheel in a small private plane flying to Washington DC with him and my brother. When I was 7 we built a raft out of logs  while we were on vacation in Maine.  I remember going to the general store/hardware store to buy rope and nails and rafting out into Burnt Cove bay. He taught me too have a curiosity for new things. He took me to some of his theater rehearsals when I was8-9. I got to be behind the curtain while he was operating the lights. Later watching while he was playing the nephew who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt, in Arsenic and Old Lace.  He had an MG sports car that I learned how to drive in when I was 12-13. He taught me how to use a rifle as a youngster and allowed me to go out on my own when he thought I was mature enough to handle it safely and shoot the birds that invaded our garden.

those were all before we moved to Boulder. In Boulder, I remember, enjoying watching him sing in his barbershop group with Daniel. going skiing at Winter Park with him and his friends. He did teach me to ski when we lived in New York.

…he was always checked out to us children and family. when you are an only child, you are used to having what you want basically unless your parents say no so one reason he had so many adventures traveling and stuff was because he wanted to do that and when we were younger, it’s seldom included us. The fun things I’ve listed here that I did with him probably total three weeks at the most I know there were more things we did that was fine, but there were also things that happened in our family that were not fun because of his selfish ways.  One reason he was such a good bridge player was because he spent all that time doing what was fun for him and not doing stuff with the family. I can’t really blame him in the sense that this is what all people do hey usually have some talent that day hone through working at it. So I mentioned some times that were good memories for me but there were other times that are not so pleasant to think about. Also silly things because his job made him distant, like, I didn’t really know what he did at IBM so when I was in a Boy Scout troop at camp after spending a week with my troop, this was for kids on their own. When I was asked, what does your father do?  I made up a wonderful lie not realizing how deep it would have to go and I said my father is a racecar driver then when I was asked, what color was the car? I had to make up a color and blah blah blah and I didn’t know anything about racing and eventually I knew they knew I was lying but I couldn’t say I wasn’t.

Robert:
Carter Eaton Dorrell 1930-2022

Born with the sun, rising in the Constellation Virgo, he left us a bit before 5:am, on December 8th, at age 93, just as the full moon covered the planet Mars.

A couple hours later, as I sat with my hand on a blanket over his legs, a flock of geese touched down across the street. Gathering, one led, to view the house in a line along the curb; to look West, then South at us in the bay window.

Suddenly the morning breeze increased, until the large window pane began to rattle. In front, we saw the wings outstretched, the lead goose suspended above ground, with legs below, motionless until as wind eases, his feet touching ground again.
In those moments I felt our father of five had slipped away from us, a few moments later the geese took flight again.

I believe what our father did manifest, for those he loved and knew, all of that may last forever in memory. God Blessed Carter, & each of us were blessed to have shared w/ Dad.

🤠

What stories do you remember?

Send them here, and we will post them.

CarterEatonDorrell.1929.2022@gmail.com