WINDSOR – Following a brief illness, Windsor Town Commissioner Lawrence Carter, Jr. passed away on Thursday at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville. He was 72.

A lifelong resident of the county seat, Carter entered family retailing business as a young man. He was also a Bertie County magistrate up until the time of his retirement.

Carter also served on the Board of Directors of the Bertie-Martin Regional Jail in Windsor, and was also a volunteer

tax preparer with Bertie County Council on Aging. One of his final public appearances was at the ‘Windsor 250’ Sestercentennial Celebration during Veteran’s Day weekend 2018.

Carter’s political career began when he was appointed in April 2012 to fill the unexpired term on the Windsor Town Board when Commissioner Rev. Hoyt Cooper re-located to Winston-Salem.   Carter then ran in the 2013 municipal election and won in his own right to fill the two remaining years of Cooper’s term.

In 2015, Carter was elected to his first four-year term, which he was serving at the time of his death.

“He was a great boss, and an even better friend,” said Windsor Town Manager Allen Castelloe. “I will miss him.”

“Solid as a rock,” said Windsor Mayor Jim Hoggard, a former Commissioner, who was the town’s chief executive at the time Carter first came into office. “We didn’t always agree on all things, but he was a true gentleman, and I was proud to have served with him.”

Fellow Town Commissioner Cathy Wilson, who, like Carter, came to her council seat by filling an unexpired vacancy, said, “He was fair, he was reasonable, he just wanted to do the right thing for the town and everyone in it.”

“We called him ‘Speedy’,” noted former Commissioner Jon Powell. “He was a valuable contributor to the town of Windsor for many years and I will miss his input as well as his professionalism.”

Funeral arrangements for Carter were incomplete as of the Friday deadline for today’s edition of the News-Herald.