Welcome To Carter Glass Co., Inc.

"Where Quality and Service are a Tradition"

Kind Hearts Will Be Missed

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Bob and Katie Carter

Sometimes the quiet heroism of living life goes unnoticed. Since it isn't the larger-than-life comic variety of heroism, some times people take note.
However, some of those people will notice something missing now that Robert Carter has died. His might have been called a quiet heroism.
Carter is known in Shawnee for his generous contributions to St. Joseph Grade School, church-related benefits and other charities. He is known as the father of six rambunctious boys, all of whom joined him in the business that he founded in 1961.
He is also known for his accomplishment of starting with nearly nothing and turning it into Carter Glass Company, a company that in 1995 grossed $8 million in sales.
Carter may have known something of the larger-than-life heroism, having fought in World War II in the South Pacific for three and a half years and surviving three or four beach landings.
When the United States was brought into the war with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he had been married to his wife, Kathryn - Katie, for two years. They had known each other in grade school, and their marriage lasted 57 years.
He had been working as an estimator and salesman for Pittsburgh Plate Glass, now known as PPG Industries, for a year or so. Even so, he was drawn into the national crisis and with his new wife's consent joined the Marine Corps.
When he returned from war, he and Katie found the site for their Shawnee home, which he built at nights and on weekends with the help of neighbors. He opened his own company in 1961.
Success may have seemed a long way off in the early years. Katie's frugal ways while working at Sunshine Biscuit helped him start the company.

"His business was a means by which he could help others realize their dreams, whether it was his customers - by providing them with what they needed at high quality and at a fair price - or his employees, by treating them fairly and with respect," read a nephew in a eulogy at the mass held for him Jan. 16. At one point he had to borrow from the bank to cover bonuses for employees.
As business success grew, he remembered where he had come from and tried to look out for the downtrodden. He regularly attended daily mass at Redemptorist Church at 31st Street and Broadway in Kansas City, Mo. on his way to work downtown. He would pick up others headed for the church along the way. He also contributed to Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army. He also invested his charitable contributions to help Native Americans. "He felt they had a dirty deal dealt to them," son Jim said.
Carter's business savvy wasn't learned at a business school. In fact, he attended only two years at Rockhurst High School.
"He didn't do his studying out of books; life taught him what he knew," Bill, his son, said.
In addition to his work, family, church and charitable endeavors, Carter was also an avid golfer. He learned to play the game when he was a caddy at the Kansas City Country Club. One of the honorary pallbearers in Carter's funeral was Ray Watson, the father of pro golfer Tom Watson. It was Carter who taught the golf pro's father how to play the game.
Even in his 70's he could consistently drive a ball more than 280 yards, his sons reported.
by Chuck Robinson - Shawnee Journal Herald

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