IN MEMORIAM

EXPANDED EULOGIES

“In Memoriam” listings are expanded paid obituaries, phrased as the family requests, and may include enhanced information or photographs that might not fit within free death notices.

Bill Carpenter

A graveside service for Marion native William “Bill” Randolph Carpenter Jr., 92, who died March 9 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is planned for 1 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Marion Cemetery.

A third-generation lawyer, Judge Carpenter dedicated his life to public service in Topeka and in Naples, Florida, his retirement home.

He was preceded in death by grandfather William Herbert Carpenter; parents Helen Williams Carpenter and William Randolph Carpenter, who was a member of Congress from 1932 to 1936; sister, Jeanne Antoinette Carpenter Morris; brother-in-law Dr. “Bud” Morris; and nephews Ward Simmons and Tom Morris.

Bill was born May 30, 1932 in Marion, where he spent an idyllic childhood with two loving parents and his beloved older sister. He attended Marion schools and graduated in 1950 from Topeka High, where many years later he was grand marshal of his 50th class reunion.

Bill began his college years at Yale University, where he was a proud member of Mory’s Association with its Temple Bar, where the Whiffenpoofs sang. He graduated in 1954.

After two years in Army intelligence, Bill finished his tour as a first lieutenant. His father, William Randolph Carpenter Sr., passed away in 1956.

That fall, Bill started the first of his three years at Harvard Law School. He graduated in the spring of 1959.

Bill joined the Carpenter and Carpenter law firm in Marion and then moved to Topeka, where he was Shawnee County district judge for more than 30 years.

He started as the youngest judge and retired as the longest-serving district court judge in Kansas.

He was chief judge of Shawnee County District Court for 13 years and retired in 1995. He served as president of the Kansas District Judges Association for two years and was on the faculty of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada.

In an interview with the Topeka Capital Journal, Bill said, “When I arrived [at the district court], I didn’t have a desk or books.”

The article described how Bill had a hand in preserving Gage Park when heirs of the Gage family, who gave 80 acres of land, sought to recover the park.

In Bill’s retirement to Naples, Florida, he practiced mediation for 10 years and then was elected chairman of the Pelican Bay Foundation board.

The board functioned as the quasigovernmental entity in charge of the community’s policies, rules, and amenities — beach restaurants, community center, boardwalks, sidewalks, berms, parks, and lakes. Pelican Bay is a large development with 15,000 residents.

His judicial temperament and mediation experience served him well as he calmed Pelican Bay’s then frayed relations with the adjacent City of Naples and with county government.

Bill was an active member and past president of the Yale Club of Southwest Florida and was active with the Harvard Club of Naples.

During all his time, he was a good and faithful steward of the Carpenter farms in his hometown of Marion. He had many friends in Marion, Topeka, Naples, and all over the country.

He is survived by three children, son Randolph Carpenter (and wife Julie), daughter Carolyn Frischling (and husband Michael), and son Charles Carpenter; nieces Anne Cox (and husband Tim), Julie Plourde (and husband Alan), and Nancy Cox (and husband Clay); and grandchildren Brendon Carpenter, Maria Frischling, Anthony Frischling, Blake Carpenter, and Alaina Carpenter.

Bill was proud of his public service and said he tried to help people throughout his life — as a judge, mediator, mentor, camp counselor for three summers during high school, business manager of his high school newspaper, Boy Scout, and years later an adult Boy Scout division leader.

One of Bill’s favorite sayings was, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” No one is perfect, but his friends saw him as wise and good.