Episcopal Press and News
Republic of Liberia Honors Oscar Carr
Episcopal News Service. November 3, 1977 [77358]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- The Republic of Liberia has honored Oscar C. Carr, Jr. -- former executive for stewardship/development at the Episcopal Church Center here -- for his work in advancing the cause of self-reliance and education in Africa.
In a private ceremony at Mr. Carr's Manhattan apartment, he was appointed "Knight Great Band of the Liberian Humane Order of African Redemption." The citation, signed by Liberian President William R. Tolbert, Jr., hailed Mr. Carr for his key role in bolstering the finances and expanding the program of Cuttington College; the only independent liberal arts institution in Sub-Sahara West Africa.
While serving at the Church Center -- a post he left early in this year -- Mr. Carr was instrumental in launching and administering the $3.1 million Cuttington College Crossroads Fund Drive. That drive has already netted about half its goal and the money has been used for faculty/staff housing and to improve the college plant and the farm that is a major income producer for the struggling college.
He was also a key person in the protracted negotiations which produced, last August, a grant of over $2. 8 million from the United States Agency for International Development for a Rural Development Center which will use Cuttington College facilities in a concerted effort to increase productivity and farming techniques throughout the small African Republic.
Mr. Carr left the Church Center in February to become president of the National Council on Philanthropy, a New York-based organization that has served private philanthropic work for more than 22 years. Mr. Carr has been ill with cancer since mid-summer.
The award was presented by the Hon. Francis Dennis, Liberian Ambassador to the United States; the Hon. Emmett Harmon, Ambassador at Large; and the Hon. Arthur B. Cassell, Sr., Consul-General of Liberia.
The USAID grant will partially fund the operating budget of the project, help build additional classrooms, dormitories and faculty housing, and will provide basic equipment and farm machinery. At the end of the five-year period, the program will be entirely funded by local sources and staffed by all-Liberian personnel.
Primary attention will be given to Liberia's tree crops -- rubber, oil of palm, citrus fruit, coffee, cocoa, and pulp wood -- as well as rice, Liberia's staple food. Vegetables and small animals will be raised.
USAID officials visualize a major impact from this program. Liberia -- with 1. 5 million citizens -- is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Africa. Most of the cultivated acreage is now in small farms of one or two acres. The Rural Development Center has the potential of raising the country's standard of living, providing better nutrition for its population, and setting standards and new techniques which can be models for neighboring countries.
Mr. Carr's involvement with Cuttington College grows naturally out of an active role in the fight against racism and for human rights in both the Church and secular society; a fight in which he has been engaged for most of his years in Mississippi and which still occupies much of his attention.
He was a key member of the racially-integrated delegation to the Democratic Convention in 1968 which successfully challenged the Mississippi all-white machine delegation to represent the state.
In the Church, he was one of four speakers who led the Church into its response for human rights at the 1969 General Convention in South Bend, Ind.
He was a co-founder of an anti-poverty community action board in his hometown and also a co-founder of an organization that eventually involved over 6,000 children in Mississippi Head Start programs.
Mr. Carr has edited several books on stewardship and has also overseen the development of innovative stewardship materials for the Episcopal Church.
A native of Mississippi, Mr. Carr graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy in 1945, and served a tour of duty as a regular Navy officer. He has had a varied civic and business career in Mississippi and in New York, and is the president of Carr Planting Co., Inc., of Clarksdale, Miss. Berkeley Divinity School at Yale awarded him a Doctorate in Canon Law and Cuttington College bestowed on him the Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
In his local parish -- St. George's, Clarksdale -- he was a member of the vestry, a teacher and lay reader with special permission to preach sermons of his own composition. In the Diocese of Mississippi he has been a member of the Standing Committee, the Diocesan Council, president of the diocesan layman's organization and chairman of a successful diocesan capital funds drive. In New York City he is a vestryman of the Church of the Heavenly Rest.
Mr. Carr was an elected deputy from the Diocese of Mississippi to the General Convention in 1967, 1969 and 1970. At the 1970 meeting he chaired the strategic Agenda Committee and he has been on the Advisory Committee to the Convention's House of Deputies President.
The Convention in 1970 elected him to membership on the Executive Council from which he resigned in order to become Executive for Development/Stewardship on the staff of the Episcopal Church Center.