Malcolm Rosswell Carnahan was born at home in Ramsey, Illinois, on April 15, 1937. He died at home in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 14, 2019.
He was the second of four sons born to Elizabeth Jane Spires Carnahan (1918-2000) and Charles Carrolton Carnahan (1911-1979). Their first-born, James Carrolton Carnahan, did not survive his birth, so Malcolm grew up as the oldest of three brothers, in Decatur, Illinois.
He graduated from Decatur High School in 1955 and from Eureka College in 1959 with a B.A. in sociology. That fall he entered Vanderbilt Divinity School and soon got involved in the Nashville Student Movement, participating in nonviolent training and the civil rights sit-ins in Nashville. In 1963 he graduated; married Joanna Webb Evins in Smithville, Tennessee; and entered the U.S. Army.
After serving in Vietnam in 1965-66, he was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant; was ordained as a minister in The Disciples of Christ denomination; and accepted a position as Assistant Minister with Fourth United Church of Christ in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
That’s where the family lived when their daughter was born in 1968, months before they moved to Chicago, Illinois, where their son was born in 1972. There Malcolm worked for the Midwest Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.) even after the family later moved an hour south to Stelle, Illinois.
In 1975 Malcolm resigned from H.U.D. to become President of The Stelle Group, the nonprofit philosophical organization that created the intentional community of Stelle in the middle of Illinois corn country. He remained the group’s president through its move to Dallas, Texas in 1982.
By 1988 it had become clear that the end had come for this group that Malcolm saw as his life’s calling. He’d lived its teachings for 20 years, and he valued its philosophy for the rest of his life.
The family moved to Virginia then, for Malcolm to work in business with some friends. In time he developed meaning for himself and others in that world by helping many small-business owners create an over-arching company which they cooperatively owned and ran. After moving to Nashville in 2001 to live nearer family, he managed the company’s growth until retirement.
In addition to his wife of 56 years, his family members are their children Elizabeth Ann Carnahan Carter with her husband Ryan, and Colin Joseph Carnahan with his wife D’Nelle; his grandchildren Benjamin Rex Carter, Loren Ann Carter, and Landon Evins Carnahan; Malcolm’s brothers Charles Carrolton Carnahan, Jr. with his wife Stella, and Bryden Keith Carnahan with his wife Carolyn; his sisters-in-law Jane Fancher Evins Leonard with her husband Rob, and Mary Adelaide Evins Overton with her husband Gaius; plus eleven nieces and nephews and their spouses and children, and many cousins.
A memorial service will be held at two o’clock on Saturday, December 28, 2019, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville, 1808 Woodmont Boulevard.
Malcolm was respected and cherished by every person in his family and by friends in many spheres of life. His family sees those relationships as the gifts that best honor him. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes stories about Malcolm’s life. There will be a basket at the service to hold written anecdotes anyone cares to share. Friends who find it meaningful to make other gifts in honor of Malcolm may wish to give them to causes that further values they saw him live.
