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Colleagues remember former Galax mayor Van McCarter

McCarter, who passed away at age 96 this week, was on Galax City Council for 25 years.

By Shannon Watkins
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 at 7:01 pm

Dr. Van Buren McCarter, former dentist and mayor of Galax from 1986-1992, died on Monday in Waddell Nursing and Rehab Center at the age of 96.

McCarter retired from Galax City Council in 2004, after 25 years, 12 of those as mayor.

McCarter was known as a forward-thinking individual who put the good of the city ahead of personal gain. A member of the city council that hired retiring Galax Police Chief Rick Clark and authorized the original Harold W. Snead Safety Building that houses the police department, McCarter is known also for the lack of animosity left in his wake.

“I think most people would say that he was civic-minded, always had the best for the community in his heart,” said Clark. “You would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say an ill word about him.”

Clark also summed up the difficulty of painting a broad portrait of McCarter’s legacy: “Most of his generation is gone.”

He was born in Grayson County’s Briar Patch Mountain community, in the Spring Valley area, on July 11, 1921.

McCarter graduated from Elk Creek High School, and he and his older brother Bill came to Galax to work at Burlington Mills, and later told his children he ran a loom there. McCarter joined the armed forces around 1941 and served during World War II in the Pacific theater, taking pictures of landscape in the Philippines from a reconnaissance plane.

After the war, McCarter married Jane Giersch, also of Galax, and took advantage of the G.I. Bill by graduating at the top of his class from Emory & Henry College in about 1949, according to his son, Dr. Jeff McCarter, before pursuing the study of dentistry at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.

He returned to Galax and lived on Center Street at the site now occupied by the Vaughan-Guynn Funeral Home.

McCarter practiced dentistry in the old general hospital building (later to become Persinger’s accounting firm), and eventually moved his practice to Washington Street, where he worked until his retirement.

Along with his dental practice, McCarter served on the Health Services Agency Board, was active in the American Dental Association, and was also on original board of directors for Twin County Regional Hospital, as well as serving as chairman for the local Democratic Party for several years, where he was very active in politics. He and his wife were also on the design committee for the new library building.

His middle child — Dr. Jeff McCarter, 62, a doctor at the Twin County Regional Hospital ER — remembers his father as robust until very late in life. “He practiced [on Washington Street] until he retired. I can’t recall the year, but I believe he practiced until he was 92,” said Jeff. “He had some health problems that forced him to retire or I think he’d still be over there.”

Mayor C.M. Mitchell, who recalls getting his first driver’s license around the time McCarter opened his office on Washington Street, agreed. McCarter threw his own 90th birthday party at the West Galax Diner (now Melany’s Diner) and “he drove himself there,” said Mitchell.

When Mitchell joined council in 1992, McCarter was serving as mayor. Mitchell eventually served under him as vice-mayor.

“If I live to be 95, I hope I’m as sharp as he was,” said City Manager Keith Barker. “He cared about Galax. He didn’t quit being involved in anything.”

Projects McCarter became known for included the industrial park off Glendale Road where the Guardian plant is located, and renovations to the downtown area, both much earlier than similar efforts in other communities.

This vision made him “really innovative,” said Barker. McCarter’s drive put Galax “a little ahead of the other communities in Southwest Virginia. And that was done pre-1990 in Galax. That kind of speaks to the initiative he had to lead the way.”

“I know he was very passionate about the city, and trying to develop it, and bring industry in,” said Jeff. “He was very proud of some of the industries he convinced to come or stay in Galax. Another thing he was very proud of was the music center up on the [Blue Ridge] Parkway. The city owned that land, and he wanted to give it to the federal government to build the center. He caught a lot of flack for that, but he was able to give that land to the federal government... He talked about that over the years as something he was able to accomplish.”

“He had a true love for Galax, and the work that he did on council and as a mayor was to advance the city,” said Mitchell. “He never had any kind of personal agenda. He always had the city as his first thought.”

McCarter not only influenced the city as a whole, but also left a lasting impression on his family and friends in the community.

“The reason I’m on council today is because of Dr. McCarter’s persistence,” said Mitchell. McCarter, he said, called him every night at around 10 p.m. for several days, telling Mitchell he needed to run for council. “I said, ‘No, I want to be on school board.’” Mitchell smiled. “The joke I tell people is, my arm is still sore from where he twisted it.”

Mitchell added, “And he was just an excellent dentist. I was kidding him recently: one of the fillings he installed 45 years ago broke! He is a treasure who will be missed and difficult to ever be replaced.”

“He was always sharp,” said Barker. “He knew everybody, he always recognized people. He was my dentist when I was a little child… and referred to me as ‘a fine young man!’ at the [recent] ribbon-cutting for the mural on Grayson Street.”

“He loved golf,” said Jeff. “I know that he was one of the founding members of Gay Hills Country Club [now Blue Ridge Country Club] when it was built back in the ‘60s. He put up a big tarp in the backyard and he’d hit golf balls into it. You could probably hear it all over the neighborhood.”

Jeff said McCarter, “was a good dad. We were always a priority for him. He got us all playing golf... We traveled a lot. And when we all started our own families, he was very involved with his grandchildren. I always thought he was very humble and respectful of everyone. I always thought he was someone I’d try to be like.”

Jeff left Galax for college and medical school in 1992 and practiced medicine in Richmond for several years, but recalled the family events that compelled him to return.

“My mother died in 2009 and I moved back to Galax in 2011,” he said. “I came back to help him out, and I think he helped me more. He was, at 88, very independent. The reality was, he probably didn’t need any help... It’s just sort of a testament to his grit and his staying healthy well into his later years.”

Jeff felt his father’s influence every day, he said. “I would say there was rarely a day that went by that I worked in the ER that someone, and some days multiple people, didn’t ask if I was Dr. McCarter’s son. They would start talking about what a great guy he was, what a nice guy he was and how they started seeing him when they were little kids. That really made it special to be there. Almost every day that I work, somebody will ask me that, and start talking about their relationship with him. People would go ‘Oh, yeah, Van Buren, I remember him when we were kids.”