Carlisle Lawton Rast May 29, 1928 - June 19, 2008 Passed away of natural causes June 19 at the San Francisco Towers where he made his home for six years.

 

He was born in Spartanburg, SC, the son of a Methodist minister, John Marvin Rast. Carlisle grew up in several cities and towns in South Carolina where the senior Rast ministered to Methodist churches. His father was president of Lander University and editor of the South Carolina Methodist Advocate.

 

Carlisle graduated from Wofford College in Spartanburg and went on to teach high school English and social studies. In the army during the Korean war he was assigned to teach courses in literacy to young farm youths who were recruits from the tobacco fields. The G.I. Bill sent him to the University of Chicago where he studied modern European history and wrote his thesis on separation of church and state in France in the 1800s. There he met his future wife, Peggy. With his degree he resumed teaching at Hyde Park High School in Chicago. When the young Rasts took their sabbaticals, Carlisle from his high school English and Peggy from her library work at the Chicago Art Institute, they sold their house and put everything in storage. They took off for a year and lived in Egypt, Israel, Beirut, Athens, Iran, as well as Mosul, Basra and Bagdad in Iraq. When they returned to the United States it was not to Chicago but to San Francisco, where they had both visited.

 

Carlisle loved to teach and almost immediately became a principal player in Baymart, Bay Area youth marketing and retail training. He was on the marketing committee of the San Francisco Towers and was an enthusiastic resident. He loved the arts and enjoyed the symphony, ballet, ACT and the Berkeley Rep on a regular basis. He belonged to the San Francisco Musical Society and the Browning Society.

 

His wife preceded him in death after 41 years of marriage.

 

He is survived by his sisters, Sue Rast Foy of Madison, GA, and Anne Rast Wells of Merritt Island, FL; numerous nieces and nephews; and a little goddaughter, Darla Huong.

 

Carlisle's ashes have been flown to Madison, GA, where there will be a family gathering celebrating his life. The family requests that donations in his memory may be made to the John Marvin Rast Scholarship Fund at Lander Uni-versity in Greenwood, SC, 29649. The fund was esta-blished in 1993 by his son Carlisle L. Rast, and daughter, Sue Rast Foy; or a charity of choice.

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Published in San Francisco Chronicle on June 29, 2008