Thomas Bruce Carpenter Jr.

Thomas Bruce Carpenter, Jr., was born in New Castle, Pa., on February 13, 1942, just an hour or so away from being the Valentine’s baby his mother had anticipated. He grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, but fondly remembered being a six-year-old living in Canada and playing in the snow with his brother and his parents. Most of all, however, he looked forward to spending time at his maternal grandparents' home in Poland, Ohio. Throughout his life his grandmother, Nelle Foster Mitchell, and grandfather, Osborne Mitchell, remained emotionally and intellectually nurturing. Like his grandfather, he was drawn to family history and began to explore places where ancestors had lived and to write stories about them. After a couple of years in high school in Youngstown (where football was a favorite pastime and teammates remained life-long friends), he graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania in 1960. He earned a B.A. in English Literature in 1964 at Washington and Jefferson College, a small men's college at the time in Washington, Pa. His maternal grandfather had also graduated from W&J. On Sundays, Bruce visited close relatives who still lived in town. He often recalled the literature professors in high school and college who introduced him to the wonders of Chaucer and pleasures of Latin (which served him well when he subsequently began to learn Spanish and Portuguese). Having completed ROTC training in college, he was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army and stationed at Ft. Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma, where he served until December 1966. On a Friday the 13th in 1964, Bruce met Inta Gale on a blind date arranged by two of their friends who trusted in their match-making skills. On September 24, 2016, Bruce and Inta celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. Despite Bruce’s absorption with the humanities, his first job after leaving the army was as an industrial engineer at CF&I Steel, where his paternal grandfather had been superintendent decades earlier. In 1968, however, Bruce turned back to literature and began graduate studies in Medieval English at Indiana University. After completing an M.A., he accepted a position at Southeast Community College in Cumberland, Kentucky. In addition to teaching literature courses there for two years, he also became advisor to student editors of the college newspaper. Subsequently, this new interest sparked a career in book design and composition which immersed him in the challenges and pleasures of words and aesthetics for the rest of his life. He combined work as a compositor with farming, after he and Inta bought a 150-year-old log house on 21 acres outside of Bloomington, Indiana, in 1974. In 1978, Inta’s parents bought a nearby farm and soon they all were working together to tend large gardens, grow alfalfa and corn, raise a few head of cattle, feed chickens and a couple of pigs, and enjoy two horses. They lived in the country for 14 years with their two children, Alexander Ian, born on June 21, 1969, and Eleanor Aimee, born January 4, 1972. Like their father, both children spent happy hours with their grandparents, where love and good food were equally abundant. Bruce was a devoted member of St. Mark's United Methodist Church, where he served on the Peace with Justice committee and particularly enjoyed sharing ideas with kindred souls in the New Nomads group and with the men in Conversations on Life. St. Mark’s also led him to Habitat for Humanity. In 1988, he joined other volunteers to begin building homes in Monroe County, and throughout the 1990s, he served as a Habitat board member, including two terms as president. St. Mark’s also provided Bruce with the opportunity to visit inmates in Monroe County through a “jail-bingo ministry” and to help with the Interfaith Emergency Winter Shelter program for the homeless in Bloomington. Bruce is survived by his wife, Inta Gale Carpenter, his mother-in-law, Austra Anna Pinkis, his son, Alexander Ian Carpenter (and wife Adrienne Daibert), his daughter, Eleanor Aimee Carpenter (and husband Cory Whitehead), and his grandchildren, Izabella Daibert Carpenter, Gabriel Daibert Carpenter, Soren William Whitehead, and James Mitchell Whitehead. He was preceded in death by his brother, Howard Bruce Carpenter, who died on March 6, 1967, serving as a Green Beret in the Vietnam war. A memorial service will take place on Saturday, December 17, 2016, at 2:00PM at St Mark's United Methodist Church in Bloomington. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County (https://monroecountyhabitat.org/) or St. Mark’s Methodist Church (http://stmarksbloomington.org/). You are invited to share a memory or leave online condolences at www.allencares.com.

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Thomas Bruce Carpenter Jr.

February 13, 1942 - November 13, 2016