U-M Honoring Rev. Carpenter And Industrialist

A retired Ann Arbor minister and an aircraft industry executive will be honored at the University’s first summer commencement at 2 p.m. Sunday in Hill Auditorium, the U-M announced today.

An estimated 1,750 students will receive degrees at the exercises at which Gardner Ackley, chairman of President Johnson’s Council of Economic Advisers, will deliver the main address. Ackley is on leave from his post of U-M economics professor.

The Rev. Charles W. Carpenter, retired pastor of Ann Arbor's Second Baptist Churc, will receive the coveted U-M Regents' Citation of Honor.

John. O. Yeasting, Boeing Aircraft Corp. vice president, and general manager and director of its Commercial Airplane Division, will receive an honorary doctor of business administration degree. 

Recognized as an executive in the commercial transport aircraft industry who has played a major role in revolutionizing air transportation, Yeasting received his AB degree at the U-M in 1927. A native of Helena, Ohio, he became an accountant before joining Boeing in 1939. He rapidly advanced to the position of vice president and controller. He was named vice president and general manager of the transportation division in 1951.

Named "Aviation Man of the Year" by the Seattle Junior Chamber of Commerce this year, he directs the engineering, production and sale of commercial jet transports for Boeing, producer of more than half of all commercial jet airplanes now in use.

In addition to his business accomplishments, Yeasting has been active in community affairs in Seattle, where he is a director of the Boy Scouts of America. He also is a director of the Puget Sound Power and Light Co.

The Rev. Mr. Carpenter, known to many in the Ann Arbor area for his humanitarian works, served 35 years as pastor of the Second Baptist Church. Since coming here in 1929, the present church was built, its mortgage retired and church membership more than doubled.

A popular figure through his visits to hospital patients in Washtenaw County, the Rev. Mr. Carpenter has been active with the United Fund of Ann Arbor. He served as resident of the Ann Arbor Ministerial Association in 1944-46. 

A graduate of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1909, the Rev. Mr. Carpenter studied under George Washington Carver and was a friend of Tuskegee's founder, Booker T. Washington.

The Rev. Mr. Carpenter recently donated 12 personal letters written by Booker T. Washington and his wife to the University's Michigan Historical Collections. The retired pastor, graduating in 1909 when Washington was president of Tuskegee Institute, remained a close friend of the great educator after his college days.

An active pastor 54 years since entering the ministry in Detroit in 1912, he also served churches in Duluth, Minn.; Crawfordsville, French Lick, Marion and Muncie, Ind.; Toronto, Ont., and Joliet, Ill.