Harold Carter was born in McIntyre, Iowa on December 30, 1904, he graduated from the Valena High School in Minnesota in 1922, going on to the University of Minnesota that fall. There he earned his B.A. degree in 1926, his M.A. degree in 1927, and his Ph.D. degree in the psychology department in 1930, with emphasis on the field of Tests and Measurement and with minors in Mathematics and Biometry.
After having been associated with the University of California, Berkeley, for thirty-six years as a member of the faculty in the Department of Education, Harold Dean Carter died suddenly in his Placerville residence on March 3, 1973. He is survived by his wife, Jean Timberman Carter, a graduate of Oberlin; by two sons, Benjamin and Timothy; and by two granddaughters, all of this state.
Dr. Carter's professional career was devoted almost exclusively to three institutions: the University of Minnesota, where he was a part-time instructor for three years; Stanford University, where he held a social science fellowship and worked closely with Lewis M. Terman and E. K. Strong, pioneers respectively in individual intelligence testing and in inventorying vocational interests, and where he did some teaching in the Department of Psychology for three years; and the University of California, Berkeley, beginning as a lecturer in 1937 and becoming a professor in 1950. He retired on June 30, 1971.
On several occasions he served as educational consultant for different state agencies and for local school systems, and he was called upon from time to time to address local school staffs and/or their patrons.
He was popular as a teacher with undergraduate and graduate students alike. In his elementary courses he gave splendid lectures. He was quick to note students who were temporarily confused and were accordingly frustrated. It was his practice to help such a student to regain his composure by relating a joke or humorous incident or by asking him an easy question or two which led him in the desired direction. Though he tested and graded rigorously, his students knew that he was fair.
Dr. Carter was uniformly liked and admired by his colleagues, and with good reason; he carried his full share of committee work in his department and did so faithfully and well.
For a long time he was a sufferer from arthritis, he did not complain of his pain; instead, as in the instance of his hobby--carpentry--he used his ingenuity to devise mechanical aids to help him do what he wanted to do.