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Carre, Ph.D., Henry Beach

1/20/1928

HENRY BEACH CARRE, PH.D. June 9, 1871-Jan. 20, 1928
Few are the lives of men that, even within the allotment of three score years and ten, have comprised so great and so varied services f or humanity and the Kingdom of God as that of Dr. Henry Beach Carré, even in his shortened lifetime. He was born on June 9, 1871, in the city of New Orleans, to Walter W. Carré and Elvira Adams Beach. His parents were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He further enjoyed the advantage of counsel and example of his grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin Beach, a prominent physician and a pillar in the Carondelet Street Methodist Chprch. The fellowship of his oldest brother, Mr. W. W. Carré, was also a source of strength to him. His mother was a woman of exemplary piety, which found expression through numerous religious, philanthropic and civic activities, in all of which her extraordinary administrative talent was well employed. Deprived by the untimely death of his father of what might have constituted one more incentive and guide to right action, circumstances thus originating may have furnished some compensation. The death of Mr. Walter W. Carré, Sr., left to the widow and mother an important manufacturing enterprise, which, with the aid of her sons, as they became of age, was managed with eminent wisdom and grew to great success. In 1895 Mr. Carte received the degree of B.A. from Tulane University. He had determined, under the ministry of the Rev. B~ Carradine, to become a minister of Christ. In family council it was decided that “Henry” must have an adequate education. He had been in th& business until his nineteenth year, when his higher education began. Well did he improve his opportunities and to the glory of God did he employ the powers that education enhanced. He received the degree of B.D. in Vanderbilt University in 1898, and studied theology in Berlin and Marburg, Germany, in 1898-1900. In 1913 he received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, for which as a thesis he presented “Paul’s Doctrine of Redemption”, a work based upon such thoroughness of investigation and such mastery of materials as to indicate what successes might have awaited him had he chosen the field of theological study rather than that of active philanthropy as his majo? interest in life. On March 22, 1906, Prof. Carré wedded Miss Mary 0. Vaughan, of Nashville, Tenn. Mr. Carte entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1893, and was ordained an elder in the Louisiana Conference in 1901. In 1900-02 he was pastor of the church in Jackson, La., and Professor of Greek and English Bible in Centenary College of Louisiana. In the summer of 1902 he became President of the College. In 1903 he became Professor of Biblical Theology and English Exegesis in Vanderbilt University, his theological Alma Mater. From this chair he was transferred to that of Old Testament Languages and Literature in 1920. In 1914 Prof. Carré was, in effect, forced out of the membership of the Louisiana Conference by the refusal of the presiding Bishop to reappoint him to a professorship in Vanderbilt University. It is neither necessary nor appropriate in this memoir of our departed brother to review the issues of the day. It is sufficient to say that the position then taken by the Bishop has not been maintained and that this memoir is prepared for publication in the Annual by request of the Conference that once accepted Dr. Carré’s forced location. Dr. Carte served during the World War with the Y. M. C. A. in 1918-19. His activities were varied and numerous, nor did their number and extent cause him to be merely a nominal member. What he did he did with painstaking thoroughness and the wisdom that comes only with thought and prayer. From 1913 to the time of his death Dr. Carré was President of the Tennessee Anti-Saloon League. He was eloquent in advocacy of the Prohibition cause and diligent in administration of the machinery of law enforcement, meanwhile carrying his full line of professional and social, duties. However, Dr. Carré’ s activities for temperance and good government had not been confined to his State alone, for his services had him enlisted in behalf of the nation-wide fight. He had been a member of the executive committee of the Anti-Saloon League of America since 1913, and further recognition of his abilities were made when he was appointed a member of the administration committee of the National Anti-Saloon League, which was charged with the duty of determining questions of policy. He was also a member of the general council of the World League-Against-Alcoholism. From 1917 to 1920 he was Superintendent of the Platform at the Monteagle Sunday School Association, and from 1904 to 1920 he was Superintendent of the Sunday School in West End Methodist Church, Nashville, Tenn. He was a member of the Sigma Chi and the Phi Beta Kappa fraternities, also of the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. Dr. Carré wrote well, but his busy life left him small leisure for literary production; nevertheless his work on “Paul’s Doctrine of Redemption” is a worthy contribution in Biblical Theology. His other writings were in the form of magazine and newspaper articles. He was an excellent preacher, rather given to social aspects of the gospel, but often strongly evangelistic, and his preaching was fruitful in the conversion of souls. Dr. Carte passed away in the city of Birmingham, Alabama, after a brief illness on January 30, 1928. His death was as his life, in the midst of the discharge of duties that he had undertaken for the advance of the Kingdom of God. Better than eulogy, the most superfluous thing possible from the viewpoint of those who knew him, would be a chronicle of his works. The governing principle of his life, as he expressed it to me in his young manhood, was, “I believe that the Christ life may be lived today.” It would indeed be difficult to point to any deviation from this principle in his marvelously consistent and productive life. Fitzgerald S. Parker
Source: Annual of the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Pages 111-113, 1927

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