Beauchamp Carr, who helped save Atlanta’s Fox Theatre, dies at 82

The son of attorney Julian S. Carr and dedicated volunteer Anne Coppedge Carr, Beauchamp Coppedge Carr, 82, died at his Buckhead home Tuesday from natural causes, his family said. He was a graduate of the Westminster Schools and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant and served in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

His maternal grandfather, Beauchamp Coppedge, started the Sophie Mae candy company in 1918 in Atlanta, creating a peanut brittle as well as other sweet treats that sold nationally. The Carr family lived across the street in Buckhead from the Coppedges.

Beauchamp Carr was close to his grandfather, traveling with him in summer to the family cottage in Highlands, North Carolina. He would take peanut brittle to camp in Brevard, North Carolina, and sell it to the other boys.

“He always said his grandfather could sell ice to Eskimos,” Le Carr said. “He was like him that way, in being a good salesman.”

Instead of selling candy, Beauchamp Carr spent decades selling the idea of Atlanta having a vibrant arts scene. He was a longtime member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta. He worked in fundraising and development at the Woodruff Arts Center, beginning in 1977 and retiring as executive vice president in 2012 after raising millions.

He had a vast array of friends and acquaintances and would call on them about supporting the arts, telling those in business that creating and supporting a thriving arts scene made Atlanta more attractive. Business leaders looked to him to entertain both newcomers and visitors to Atlanta. Le Carr said he routinely ate out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

For every one that said no to donating, “three would say yes,” his wife said. “But he never took it personally if someone said no. With Atlanta growing as it did in the 1980s, he was the right person at the right time.”

Beauchamp Carr had a deep curiosity about other people and about intellectual matters, Le Carr said. His sense of civic duty came in part from his mother, who often said, “If we don’t care for our heritage, then who will?”

Beauchamp especially enjoyed classical music, and he was friends with conductor Robert Shaw, who led both the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the chorus. He liked to blast Shaw’s recordings through the house.

In addition to his wife, Beauchamp Carr is survived by his brother, Julian S. Carr III, of Pinehurst, North Carolina; his sons, John (Virginia) and Trevor (Amy Mody), and his daughter, Georgia (Jeff Candrian); two grandchildren; plus extended family members. A memorial service is being planned for Thursday at 2 p.m. at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, where the Carrs are members, with the Rev. Rebekah Close LeMon officiating and music directed by Norman McKenzie.