In addition to his private legal practice, Carter served as president of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind in Staunton.
As a legislator (discussed below), Carter was interested in vocational and technical education, as well as fostering the tourist trade in Virginia.
Carter served on both the Gray Commission, which was designed to address the Brown v. Board of Education decisions of the United States Supreme Court, and which ultimately became radicalized and produced the Stanley Plan, which closed Virginia public schools that faced integration, and also funded segregation academies.
Various courts declared major portions of the Stanley unconstitutional in 1958 and 1959, but some Virginia public schools remained closed for years.
[3] Curry Carter announced his retirement after the 1965 redistricting in which Augusta, Rockbridge, and Highland counties and the cities of Buena Vista, Staunton, Waynesboro and Lexington became the 19th senatorial District.