Carter attended the Coburn Classical Institute, and the Portland School of Fine Arts in Maine, and the School of Industrial Art, and the National Academy of Design School in New York. He won Tiffany Foundation Fellowships in 1954 and 1955 which allowed him to study in Paris at La Grande Chaumiere, and in Rome at the Scuolo Circolare Internazionale di Roma. For some years, he worked with Herbert Haseltine, assisting him with several major pieces including the statue of Man O' War for the great horse's grave in Lexington, Kentucky. He also worked at various times for Bryant Baker, Joseph Kiselewski, and Sidney Waugh.
Carter has executed a number of sculptures for the National Cathedral in Washington, including the figures of Archangels Michael and Gabriel, a statue of St. Augustine of Canterbury, and a series of thirty works for the clerestory of the nave. When the Cathedral tower was completed in 1964, he won the commission for the Tower Dedication Medal. He has also designed a number of medals for New York University's Hall of Fame as well as busts of Jane Adams and Alexander Stewart.
Carter was awarded the Dessie Greer Prize in the Academy annual exhibition of 1980. He was a member of the faculty of the Academy school from 1967 to 1987.
