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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: black;">Dear ASA Members,<br>
</span></p>
<p style="margin:0cm"><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: black;"> It
is with sadness that I announce the passing of Professor </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">David Carter (Liverpool John Moores
University). Dave made a substantial contribution to Australian
astronomy through initiating work on multi-object fibre optic
spectroscopy in Australia with a 1981 AAO internal memo simply
entitled ‘Fibre Optics’. Together with David Malin, he also
discovered “Shell Galaxies”, or “Malin-Carter Ellipticals” at
the Anglo-Australian Telescope.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">Roger Wood (RGO, Edinburgh) and Professor Mike Bode
(Liverpool John Moores University), in collaboration with
David’s family have shared the following appreciation of his
life:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“It is with great sadness that we report the death of
David Carter at the age of 67 at his home in Parkgate, the
Wirral, after a brave and uncomplaining fight against a rare
form of blood cancer. David will be interred at Blacon cemetery,
Chester, on the 10<sup>th</sup> of June. Unfortunately,
restrictions due to COVID mean attendance has to be by
invitation only. David asked for any contributions in lieu of
flowers to be donated to Chester Zoo in his memory.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“Universally known as Dave, he was born and grew up in
Hertfordshire. He went to Hatfield School, an establishment that
later formed part of the campus of what is now the University of
Hertfordshire. Dave excelled in science at school and gained a
place to study physics at Hertford College, Oxford, at the age
of 17, graduating from there in 1973. He then moved to Cambridge
to undertake a PhD under the supervision of Craig Mackay, and
was awarded his PhD in 1977 for a thesis entitled “The Structure
of Elliptical Galaxies”.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“Observational studies of galaxies remained the main
focus of his research for the rest of his career. After a stint
as a Departmental Demonstrator at Oxford, he moved to the (then)
Anglo-Australian Observatory in Sydney (1979-1982). Here he met
his future wife, Trish, before moving to the Mount Stromlo and
Siding Spring Observatories, ANU in Canberra (1982-1987) where
two of his three sons, Steve and then Nick, were born. It was
while he was in Australia that, together with David Malin, he
discovered “Shell Galaxies”, or “Malin-Carter Ellipticals”,
spending many hours in the Prime Focus cage of the Anglo
Australian Telescope in so-doing. In the rest of his research
career, he made major contributions to a diverse range of topics
on galactic structure and content, with his last major programme
being to lead an international consortium using the HST to
survey galaxies in the Coma Cluster.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“From Australia, he moved to the Isaac Newton Group of
telescopes on La Palma where he continued both his research and
his instrument development and observer support roles. It seems
that much of the documentation in the control rooms of the INT
and WHT still has Dave Carter’s name on it. It was also on La
Palma that Dave and Trish’s youngest son, Pete, was born. In
1991, he moved back to the RGO in the UK, ultimately becoming
Head of La Palma Support. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“Dave’s expertise and experience made him an ideal
candidate for the post of Project Scientist of the pioneering,
fully robotic, Liverpool Telescope and he moved with his family
to take up the position at Liverpool John Moores University in
1996. Dave rapidly became an indispensable member of the LT team
and indeed was a driving force behind several aspects of the
development of what ultimately became the Astrophysics Research
Institute at LJMU. He became ARI’s Head of Research and then
Professor of Observational Astronomy at the University in 2008.
He took early retirement in 2012 to concentrate on his research,
his family and his wide range of outside interests.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“Dave was a passionate cricketer, both as a player and
someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game. A love he
passed on to his sons. He was a great servant of his local
community, using his talents and energies as a dedicated local
councillor and, together with Trish, the driving force behind a
church-led drop-in centre in his local town. He also loved
cooking and was notably adventurous in this and his choice of
meals, particularly when travelling abroad. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language:
EN-AU">“In summary, Dave was a cheerful, enthusiastic and very
gifted man who went out of his way to help others. He was also
extremely loyal to the institutions in which he worked, to the
friends he made and the colleagues he met along the way. He will
be sorely missed by all of those who had the privilege to know
him.”</span></p>
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