THOMAS J. CARTER was born in Camden on March 24, 1930 to Thomas J. Carter and Ethel Joiner.  

After serving in the United States Marine Corps, Thomas J. Carter was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on December 1, 1954. He was assigned to Engine Company 1 on Pine Street and reported for duty the same day. He resigned from his position with the Fire Department on October 15, 1959. Emmitt Smith replaced Thomas J. Carter on December 16, 1959.

Thomas Carter made his home at 830 Sycamore Street in the mid-1950s and was still there when he left the Fire Department. The 800 block of Sycamore was razed in the 1960s to make way for Interstate Route 676. In 1958 he founded the Bridgeton Miracle Revival Tabernacle church in Bridgeton, New Jersey, where he was also pastor.  Rev. Carter resigned from the Camden Fire Department in December of 1959. 

In 1967 Thomas Carter's younger half-brother, Jesse Flax, was appointed to the Camden Fore Department, where he serve for over 26 years. Nephew Jesse N. Flax was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on May 1, 1994 and as of 2018 is serving as the Deputy Chief of the department. 

Directories from 1977 through 1991 show Thomas Carter and family at 785 Line Street. Thomas Carter's wife, the former Catherine Ringo, passed in 1988. Thomas Carter remarried and moved to Muncie, Indiana in 1993. He died there on August 3, 1994, survived by his wife Regina M. Carter, six sons, a daughter, brothers Jesse Flax and William Flax, and a sister, Lula Washington.