Carter R. Buller, Esq. – Law Firm and Civic Leader – 1933-2014
January 10, 2014
Types : Press Releases
Carter R. Buller, born April 21, 1933 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and son of William Earl Buller, D.O., and Dorothy McCoy Buller, died January 8, 2014. Mr. Buller was a graduate of Allentown High School and a member of the class of 1955 of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Following three years as a supply officer in the U.S. Navy, and then graduation from Yale Law School in 1962, he practiced for his entire career with the law firm of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, LLP. As a partner at the firm, he founded and chaired the labor and employment law department, served in many management positions, chaired the firm from 1992 to 1996, and guided the firm’s transition from its offices on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway to its current location at 123 South Broad Street. He was particularly proud of his representation of Bryn Mawr College, the Budd Company and Mack Trucks, whose plant in Allentown was near his boyhood home.
Together with his legal career, Mr. Buller was active in city politics and fully engaged with civic life, serving as chair of the Committee of Seventy; the Society Hill Civic Association; and, per the request of then-Mayor Rendell, the Philadelphia Orchestra Millenium Task Force, following the orchestra’s labor action in 1996. He also served as chair of the board of trustees of Methodist Hospital, where he received the 1998 Dr. Scott Stewart Award for service, and was trustee and trustee emeritus of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he took great pleasure in addressing the intricacies of health care administration and working with exceptional colleagues.
During summers, Mr. Buller enjoyed the family cottage in Eagles Mere, Pa., where he loved kayaking on the lake and socializing on the beach, and chaired at various times the Eagles Mere Lake Association, Eagles Mere Park Association, and Eagles Mere Conservancy. A noted equestrian, Mr. Buller spent a year away from law school in 1959 training for the 1960 Olympics, where he and his horse, “Stay Put,” served as an alternate for the U.S. Equestrian team. World-wide travel with his family, historic preservation, music, outdoor life, antiques, farms, and fine clothes were his great interests; his family, friends, and sense of civic responsibility were his deepest passions.
A gentle man of refinement, generosity, integrity, patience, laughter, and enjoyment of others, Mr. Buller is survived by his wife of 49 years, Jo Ann, his twin children, Valerie (Kenneth Wilson) and Pierce (Amber), his granddaughters Josephine and Clara Buller, and his brother, Roderic Buller (Marie). In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Buller’s name may be sent to the Jefferson Foundation of Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals, the Eagles Mere Conservancy, the Philadelphia Orchestra, or the American Philosophical Society. Services will be private.