Father Daniel Louis Carter was killed December 19, 1978, when the single engine plane he was piloting crashed on takeoff near Independence, Louisiana. Following liturgical services at Mater Dolorosa Church in Independence, Louisiana, and at St. Pius V Church in Chicago, Illinois, he was buried in the Dominican plot at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois, on December 23.

Daniel James Patrick Carter was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 21, 1930. He received his early education at Howard, St. Joseph, and St. Francis Xavier Schools in Wilmett e, Illinois; Bishop Quarter Military Academy in Oak Park; Hollandale School in Hollandale, Wisconsin; Platteville State Teachers' Elementary School in Platteville, Wisconsin; and St. Jerome Parish School in Chicago. After graduating from St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois, in 1949, he served in the Marine Corps Reserve while studying at the University of Notre Dame for two years. In 1951, he entered the Dominican novitiate at St. Peter Martyr Priory, Winona, Minnesota, and was assigned Louis as a religious name. After first profession on August 31, 1952 he moved to the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest. Illinois, for philosophical studies and to the College of St. Albert in Oakland California, for theological courses. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 15, 1957, in San Francisco's Cathedral of St. Mary.

Father Carter returned to St. Albert's Province in 1958 to complete his final year of theology in Dubuque, Iowa; he was then given a temporary assignment at St. Pius V Parish in Chicago until October 1959, when he left the States to work in the Provincial Vicariate of Nigeria. For seven years he served in the pastoral minis try in Northern Nigeria: Holy Family in Sokoto; Our Lady of Lourdes in Yelwa; St. Theresa in Funtua; St. Vincent Ferrer in Malumfashi. In 1966, Father Carter returned to the States and was assigned to the Newman Center at the University of Houston. From 1967 to 1970, he served as associate pastor at Holy Rosary Parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then returned to campus ministry for a year at Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, Texas.

By 1971, Father Carter had hopes of returning to the Nigerian missions, but political difficulties at the time put sharp restrictions on the number of visas granted to United States citizens. For two years, he served as a parish priest and hospital chaplain in Kumasi and Ashanti, Ghana, while waiting for authorization to return to Nigeria. Since his plans for resuming work in Nigeria failed to materialize, he returned to the States in 1973 and began a program of graduate studies in theology at Aquinas Institute in Dubuque, Iowa, where he completed the requirements for a master's degree in 1975.

Two years of preaching ministry followed with the Dominican Evangelical Preaching Team based in Oklahoma City. In 1977, Father Carter was assigned to serve as associate pastor at Mater Dolorosa Parish in Independence Louisiana. There he devoted his free time to fulfilling a dream nurtured in Nigeria and Ghana of winning a license as a private pilot, a goal he achieved not long before his fatal accident.