Quick Homer Carlson

Quick Homer Carlson, September 2, 1927-March 31, 2025 Quick Carlson was a Renaissance Man if there ever was one. Born in St. Joseph, Michigan to Wesley and Alice (Janecky) Carlson, and raised on the shores of Lake Michigan, Quick came to Washington DC, after marrying Dorothy Andrews on his graduation day from the University of Michigan in 1949. He worked as an oceanographer for the Naval Oceanographic office his whole career, which took him on sea voyages all across the northern hemisphere. Quick pioneered living in the then-distant suburbs of Charles County and commuting into Washington for his government job. At his country home, built in 1957, he and Dottie raised five children in the most idyllic conditions possible, with zip lines, Tarzan swings, a hand-dug swimming pool, and a quarter size steam locomotive with track on the grounds. His children all benefitted from family adventures in spelunking, whitewater canoeing, primitive camping, and cross-country road trips. His older children remember him showing them Sputnik when it passed by in the sky and Quick is credited with taking one of only two pictures of the satellite’s rocket, which graced the cover of Science News. When he retired early from the government, he studied art at the College of Southern Maryland in the 1970’s and acquired expertise in oil painting and watercolors. He also loved being involved with the Port Tobacco Players and played roles like Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace, John Hancock in 1776, and the Judge in Trial by Jury; as well as executing innovative set designs for them, and directing plays such as Bus Stop and Mousetrap. He painted the mural that exists now in the theater’s lobby. Quick believed in cottage industries and acquired antique print shop equipment so that his kids could earn money by printing posters and raffle tickets. For a while he published a journal that was distributed through the Virginia Amateur Press Association, usually illustrated with his woodcuts. Quick spent many years designing and building a workshop bigger than his house. He hand carved the cornerstone using skills he learned in stone carving class and filled it with all kinds of machines. In retirement, Quick was also able to realize a long-time dream of being a railroad engineer and worked his way up from brakeman to engineer on the Walkersville Southern Railroad. He built his own steam launch, The Wind in the Willows, and became a regular attendee at Great International Steamboat Flotilla meets in the US and Canada. He always had some of his grandchildren as boat crew; steering, stoking the fire, or blowing the steam whistle. Always an engine enthusiast, Quick acquired a 1923 Model T that he drove around Southern Maryland, and was active in the local Model T club. Whoever designed the “He who dies with the most toys wins,” certainly had Quick in mind. In his nineties, when physical challenges were slowing him down, he restyled himself as a poet of the pandemic and wrote numerous poems to the delight of quarantined family members. Preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Dottie (Andrews) Carlson, and by his loyal dog, Foxx, who was a longtime faithful companion, but survived by his two sisters, Dawn Ankli and Wesley Ledyard, his five children: Lona Powell, Dorn Carlson, Tara Carlson, Innes Borstel, and Roal Carlson; 11 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Quick was the last surviving member of a secret brotherhood club established in high school in 1941, the SLS. By tradition, when a member dies, a ceramic frog is thrown into Lake Michigan, as will be done with proper pomp later this year. Memorial contributions in Quick’s name may be made to Community Support Systems, Inc., Brandywine (P.O. Box 206, 14070 Brandywine Road, Brandywine, MD 20613 or http://communitysupportsystems.org/contact-us/#donations)

Quick Homer Carlson

September 2, 1927 - March 31, 2025