He attended Alabama State High School and graduated from Tennessee State University to enable him to achieve a lifelong ambition to steady the uneasiness of and provide comfort to individuals and families experiencing the pain and agony accompanying the loss of a loved one.
During the early part of the Vietnam War, he covered mortuary affairs in Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
Carson had supervised mortuary preparation of remains in every major disaster involving American military and civilian personnel since 1971.
Carson applied his skills in a number of disasters, including the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and the Jonestown cult mass suicide in Guyana, Tenerife-Canary Islands at the request of the State Department; he served as technical advisor to the Wing and Group Commanders for mortuary affairs.
He also supervised the processing of the remains of victims in the NASA Challenger mission and Desert Storm as well as the air plane disaster that claimed the life of then Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.