Remembering Ash Carter: Coping with a Dangerous World

Ash Carter was a brilliant fellow who devoted himself to education and public service. (Education, too, is a public service.) He held several positions in the Department of Defense. He was secretary from February 2015 to January 2017. He passed away this week, at 68.

Carter was born in 1954 and grew up in the Philadelphia area. He went to Yale, majoring in history and physics, both. He had a special interest in medieval history. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a doctoral degree there in theoretical physics. He taught off and on at Harvard. And he worked in government off and on, from Reagan through Obama.

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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Ash Carter was a brilliant fellow who devoted himself to education and public service. (Education, too, is a public service.) He held several positions in the Department of Defense. He was secretary from February 2015 to January 2017. He passed away this week, at 68.

Carter was born in 1954 and grew up in the Philadelphia area. He went to Yale, majoring in history and physics, both. He had a special interest in medieval history. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a doctoral degree there in theoretical physics. He taught off and on at Harvard. And he worked in government off and on, from Reagan through Obama.