Dr. Mark Carr of the Worth County Class of 1975 gave a talk about his love of rocketry Sunday at the Worth County Alumni Reunion. Only 25 alums and 5 guests attended; they missed out on a big talk about the impact that a teacher can have on one’s life.
Dr. Carr started off in Allendale Elementary School, then went to Worth County when it was closed and graduated in 1975. He went to Northwest Missouri State and then continued his studies to become a dentist. He served in the Army Reserve from 1981 to 1988. He started off in Worth County and then moved his practice, opening an office in Plattsburg and then Cameron, where he stayed until he retired in 2022.
He described growing up in Allendale as easy-going, with kids allowed to go to the East Fork and run around wherever they pleased. His family has had roots in Allendale since 1869. They thought of Grant City as “high society” and didn’t want to go to school there, especially when they could walk to school.
His first grade teacher was Mrs. Dawson, and then he hit it off with his second and third grade teacher, Pansy Rinehart. She sparked a love of science in Mark as she talked about how the Indians used to make fires just by rubbing two sticks together. He could never do it, but the World Book Encyclopedia showed how to make a fire with a magnifying glass. From then, his bedroom turned into a science lab.
Mrs. Rinehart’s classes in second and third grade consisted of insects, moths, butterflies, spiders, planets, stars, the sun, and space exploration.
He was close with his brother, the late Brad Carr, who could tell a story about every block in Allendale.
The Space Race was on in the early 1960’s and President John F. Kennedy chose to go to the Moon in response to the USSR launch of Sputnik in 1957. In 1963, Kennedy was assassinated and the teachers came to the kids in tears with the tragic news and sent everyone home.
More tragedy struck at the end of 1963; one of the teachers at Allendale was killed in a wreck; in response; the county board abruptly closed the Allendale school, which had been housed in the same building since 1869, and sent everyone to Grant City.
Mrs. Eighmy was Dr. Carr’s third grade teacher for the remainder of the year. She treated students to one of her gooseberry tart recipes, and once took them on a field trip to her house to see her doll collection.
Mrs. Waldeier, in fourth grade, was always interested in what her kids had to share with her. Carr learned how to use a microscope. The science experiments at home continued. Carr made gunpowder and cinnamon sticks, leaving his clothes smelling of both.
In his sixth grade year, Carr and Mrs. Rinehart were reunited and there were rocket launch competitions in full blast. Carr and Burt Miller were in competition with each other. Back in those days, mail order rocket kits were available, with the biggest being a Big Bertha that Burton ordered. One day, they had a big rocket launch east of the school. Burton’s rocket launched on the west side and landed on the east side of the football field. Despite Mrs. Rinehart making him change his, it only made things more interesting. Mark’s rocket launched, returned to the ground, only for the second stage to launch, and somehow shot right through the crowd without hitting anyone. A kid tried to grab the rocket, only for Mark to stop them, because the third stage was about to launch. It then launched and landed east of the football field.
In 1970, Rinehart went to Florda to visit NASA and several scientists agreed to come to the school and give a talk. Carr was dressed up in an actual spacesuit as they gave a talk about the space shuttle, which was then in development.
On September 10th, 1970, more tragedy struck the Carr household as a fire destroyed the home. Carr remembered returning home from school that day and the first thing he saw was the fireman poking at the wall of the house and knocking it in.
He didn’t go to school the next day, but the community rallied in support of the Carr family, holding a shower for them on Monday in which people overwhelmed them with gifts to restart.
They rebuilt their lives and Mark moved in with his grandmother Margaret Carr. He took her to church, mowed her yard, took care of her, and she allowed him to continue his science experiments and launch rockets in her yard. The late Jerry Litton planned to nominate him for the Air Force Academy if he were to be elected, but he was killed in a plane crash on the night of his primary victory in 1976.
Carr went to Northwest after he graduated Worth County and then to dental school, becoming a dentist in 1985. He struck up a friendship with fellow dentist Dr. Ed Myers, who was more of a artist than a scientist. Throughout his time as a dentist, Dr. Carr never gave up his love for rocketry and even got featured twice on Discovery. He and Dr. Myers both got their certification in rocketry, first with level 1, then level 2, and then level 3. Level 2 certifications allowed one to launch rockets 10,000 feet high.
One of their projects was to build the world’s largest bottle rocket. It took half a day to build the rocket and was a major job to build the pop bottle.
Dr. Carr’s supreme effort was to go for the Guiness Book of World Records for the greatest height for a rocket of 4” in diameter. The record at the time was 40,000 feet. The rocket launched at over three times the speed of sound, but it was made with the same fuel that caused the explosion of the Challenger in 1986. Sure enough, at 37,400 feet, it exploded after the fluid leaked through the O-rings similar to what happened to the Challenger. For the next hour, Dr. Carr had to contend with debris falling down from the sky, although he was able to recover all the important items.
He has started his own rocket club near Cameron, at which 250 people showed up at one of his meets recently. He has come back to Worth County to give talks to kids about rocketry. Since his retirement from dentistry, he has taken up woodworking, inspired by Dick VanVactor.
Dr. Carr noted that Dr. Myers, the man who was more of an artist than a scientist, got into rocketry himself and is now a rocket teacher in his own right.
Dr. Carr noted that the recent Chinese spy rocket that flew over the US a few years ago passed right over Cameron and that he would have shot it down with permission.
At the reunion, he showed off three of the rockets that he uses and has launched many times.
The scholarships for this year went to McKenzie Walter and Eliza Corey.
Copies of the Alumni Book are on sale. They have all the Worth County and Grant City grads from 1885 to the present date, including births, deaths, marriages, veterans, and a tribute to Glenn Miller. Proceeds from the sale of these books go exclusively towards scholarships.
Josh Daniels, whose real name is Josh Kollitz, was the youngest grad present, from 2009. He performed three songs as the opening act.
Treasurer Rosa Williams reported there was $2,508 in the bank plus over $10,000 in the CD. Barb Stephenson was the oldest guest, from the Class of 1953. The Hardy family had the most members present with three. Mike Groom came from the farthest away, 265 miles, from Galesburg (IL).
Julia Wideman gave an update about the Vietnam Memorial Wall that Worth County has that lists the names of all 1,400+ people from Missouri who were killed in the Vietnam conflict, including two from Worth County. It will travel twice to St. Joseph to help with fundraisers for the Missouri Veterans Home in Cameron.
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