Carl Stoddard

Robert Carl Stoddard died March 21, 2026 of natural causes at home, cared for compassionately by his two sons and under care of Transitions Hospice.

Family visitation will be Sunday, March 29, 2026 6:00 pm-8:30 pm, Brown-Wynne Funeral Home 1701 East Millbrook Rd. Raleigh. Service of Witness to the Resurrection Monday, March 30, 2026 2:00pm at White Memorial Presbyterian Church 1704 Oberlin Rd. Raleigh. Livestreamed at whitememorial.org

Born August 29, 1934 to Fred Stewart Stoddard and Theresa Darby Stoddard in Owings, SC, Carl grew up on a farm before electrification during the Depression and WWII. He attended Gray-Court Owings school, graduated from Clemson College '57. He served in the US Army Reserves for eight years and honorably discharged with the rank of Captain. Carl worked as Assistant County Extension Agent for Saluda County, SC and as Agriculture Chemical Sales Manager for Chilean Nitrate Corporation, and W.R. Grace Company, and Virginia Lime Company.

Survived by sons Robert D. Stoddard, (Raleigh), David C. Stoddard, and wife Jill W. Stoddard, (Seneca, SC), former spouse Elizabeth "Betty" Stoddard, living brothers Jerry Stoddard, Ray Stoddard (wife Joan), and numerous nephews, nieces and friends.

Carl had generations of Presbyterian ancestors and was a lifelong Presbyterian. He served as Elder, Deacon, Sunday School superintendent, adult teacher & founding president of the Christian Fellowship Class, at White Memorial Presbyterian Church Raleigh where he was a member for 55 years and rarely missed a Sunday worship service. In earlier years he was a Deacon and adult class teacher at Shandon Presbyterian (SC), President of Synod of South Carolina Young Adults, and Deacon at Owings Presbyterian (SC). He attended Presbyterian summer camps and worked during college years at 4-H camps. He was diligent about church pledging and church contributions all his life.

He had memories of drawing water from the family well with a hand-turned windlass with its flap-bottom bucket and bringing in stove wood for the woodburning kitchen stove. Prior to electrification, his childhood home had a single carbide-gas lamp in each room for lighting.

He plowed with a mule sometimes as a youngster and remembers his father plowing with a two-horse team. Remembers when his father bought 1st tractor Allis Chalmers model C late 1940s.

He harvested cotton by hand as a youngster and with the proceeds from an acre he produced, bought his first and only bicycle.

His first job was cleaning the peach fuzz collection bins at a relative's peach packing station in Gray-Court SC while railcars were packed with blocks of ice at each end to refrigerate the fruit for shipment.

He played on his high school baseball and basketball teams and lettered in baseball. He was in Future Farmers of America and had lifelong memories of riding the train during high school from Greenville SC to Kansas City, MO to attend the FFA national conference.

During his cadet years at Clemson he was a member of the Pershing Rifles precision drill squad and toured the Southeast to perform at events, parades and competitions.

Carl was in USAF ROTC for several years at Clemson with the goal of becoming a pilot, but did not pass the vision acuity test and transferred to the Army ROTC. Because hearing protection was not provided in the 1950's, his hearing was badly damaged during Army rifle and artillery training and he struggled the rest of his life to hear people speaking to him.

As Assistant County Extension Service Agent, he visited farmers throughout Saluda County SC and was called on to give advice on a variety of agricultural enterprises, from raising poultry, making silage, terracing land, doing soil testing, basic surveying, touring dairies and more. Occasionally he had to de-horn cattle or assist a cow giving birth. He had a regular segment on a local radio station reading commodity prices and offering farm advice.

As a traveling salesman of large-volume fertilizer & lime products, he traveled for decades throughout NC, SC, VA, MS, LA, parts of TX, AR, TN & NY. His accumulated mileage was in the vicinity of 1.5 million miles driven. He knew where pay phones were throughout many small towns in NC & SC so as to be able to call the next customer, place an order with the plant or make a motel reservation---all in the era before mobile phones.

He had a keen ability to remember names, honed by in-person office visits to customers and could remember names and education credentials of former clients decades later.

Carl served on the Board of Directors of Freezeland Orchard Company (Linden VA) for many years.

Carl's passions included golf, tennis, televised baseball & football and Clemson. He practiced regularly with the Clemson tennis team during his college years and played hundreds of rounds of golf throughout his work life and retirement. He was an avid reader and enjoyed the Wake County Library annual book sale.

Like his father, Carl loved sweets all his life. He ate all kinds of candy and especially loved M & M's. "Grapette" was his favorite soft drink growing up.

Each year, he eagerly awaited his tomato harvest from the plot he grew in the side yard. Tomato sandwiches were a special craving for him. Two more of his favorite foods were mashed potatoes and ice cream. Dad was not a cook. He was satisfied with heating a can of soup and rarely came home from a grocery store without a can or two of soup and a banana bunch.

Carl knew a lot about growing cotton, various types of hay and soybeans and the soil nutrients each required. During his fertilizer sales career, NC & VA tobacco was an important portfolio crop.

During retirement, for two decades he volunteered weekly as a starter / ranger at Hedingham Golf Club and later at River Ridge Golf Club in exchange for free passes for rounds of golf and picked up and squirreled away thousands of lost golf balls.

He was fastidious in many aspects of his life and not so much in others. He shined his shoes weekly for many, many years and wore dress shirts with a special side-fold-when-tucked that he learned in the military. But he was also likely to wear a worn out undershirt or ready-to-be-resoled shoes !

He was patient in many things such as picking every silk off shucked ears of corn, or cleaning pecan nutmeats to perfect cleanliness.

Carl wore formal men's hats, often with a rain-cover until the late 1970s, long after they had gone out of national favor.

He ate twice-weekly for over two decades at Golden Corral to get the senior citizens' early-bird discount.

Dad was a very frugal man and was reluctant to throw anything away (especially clothing, belts and shoes) until it was completely shredded and unuseable, which reflected his Depression-era-farm childhood.

Carl was humble, gentle, methodical, kind, empathetic, diligent and reserved among many other fine character traits that defined him as a gentleman.

He was predeceased by father & mother Fred Stewart Stoddard and Theresa Darby Stoddard, brother Shaw Stoddard, sister Helen Stoddard Boyd Mauldin, brother Bill Stoddard, and sister Frances Stoddard Coleman

The family especially thanks Heather Drew, Barbara Campbell, Crystal Flynn, and Adele from Transitions Hospice and Julius Mwangi of The Key for their care in recent weeks.

In lieu of flowers, gifts in memory of Carl Stoddard may be made to Owings Presbyterian Church, PO Box 615 Gray Court, SC 29645 or White Memorial Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund, 1704 Oberlin Rd. Raleigh, NC 27608