Rhode Island High School Gymnasium Named After Former USNA Superintendent (Carter '81)
About the latter event, Carter commented: "I want them to know how proud I am that I am from a small town in Rhode Island and that I don't want anyone to forget that.”
The facility will become the Vice Admiral Walter “Ted” Carter '81, USN Gymnasium during ceremonies at the school. Vice Admiral Carter is a 1977 graduate of the school.
The town's school committee voted unanimously and enthusiastically to rename the facility in Carter's honor at the suggestion of Jeffrey “Ace” Farrell. Carter and Farrell were friends and teammates at the high school and have maintained their friendship over the years. He is the owner-operator of Farrell Signs in Burrillville.
The event on Friday, September 8, at the school will include a brief speaking program featuring high school principal Michael Lazzareschi, Farrell and Vice Admiral Carter. Because of space limitations attendance will be by invitation only.
Carter was raised in the Pascoag village of the town, the eldest of three children of Walter and Dorothy Carter. His father had preceded him as a student-athlete at the high school, earning All-State honors in hockey, as well as starring in football and baseball. His mother taught English at Burrillville High School for many years.
Vice Admiral Carter is the first graduate of Burrillville High School to attend the U.S. Naval Academy from which he graduated in 1981. Typical of his long and varied service, he eventually was appointed to serve as the Academy's 62nd superintendent in 2014. At Burrillville he played soccer, track and basketball, and added to his athletic record at the Naval Academy, captaining the 1981 team.
After the Academy he was designated a Naval Flight Officer and graduated from the Navy Fighter Weapons School, Top Gun, in 1985. In 2001 he completed the Navy's Nuclear Power Program on his way to commanding USS Carl Vinson (CVN70). His career as an aviator features extensive time at sea, deploying around the globe in the F-4 PhantomII and F-14 Tomcat. Included are landings on 19 different aircraft carriers. In 2012 he was commander of the Carrier Strike Group 12 during the USS Enterprise's (CVN65) final deployment after it's 51 years as a combat vessel.
Ashore, his long list of assignments includes serving as the 54th President of the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he established the Naval Ethics and Leadership Center.
Carter is the recipient of many awards including the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor for leading the Navy's first combat mission into Kosovo. He flew 125 combat missions overall in support of joint operations in Kosovo, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan, and accumulated 6,150 flight hours in F-4, F-14 and F-18 aircraft and safely completed 2,016 carrier landings, the record among all active and retired U.S. Naval aviators.
He is the only person to earn both of the Navy's most prestigious leadership awards- The Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale Leadership Award and the U.S. Navy League's John Paul Jones Award for Inspired Leadership. He was also named an Honorary Master Chief by the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy in 2008. In 2022, he received the U.S. Naval Academy's Distinguished Graduate Award, one of the youngest to receive that honor.
He has also been inducted into both the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame and the Rhode Island Aviation Hall of Fame.
But, as his Heritage Foundation citation points out, “Vice Admiral Carter has never forgotten his local roots”. He invited his high school classmates to Virginia when he was named commander of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN70). He celebrated his promotion to Admiral at the Assembly Theater in Burrillville so that his family and friends could share in his achievement.
Retired from the Navy, Carter now serves as the President of the University of Nebraska.