Jamar Carter

Name: Jamar Carter
Alias: Silk
Birth Name: Jamar Allen Carter
Hometown: Newark, New Jersey, USA
Died: 2003-10-19 (Age:36)
Stance: Southpaw
Pro Boxer: Record
Amateur Boxer: Record

As a professional boxer, Jamar "Silk" Carter was known a journeyman southpaw who could slip a punch and learned the ropes as a teenager in a Newark after-school program designed to keep young kids on the straight and narrow.

"Boxing kept him off the streets and he made a good name for himself," said Jimmy Dupree, 67, a boxing coach at Jersey City Recreation who guided Carter early in his career. "He was a winner."

Yet his 15-6 record captured only part of the 36-year-old Carter, who also worked full-time as a hospital administrator and was a single father caring for two of his four children.

Carter was found dead early yesterday by firefighters responding to a blaze at his 122 Oakland Terrace home, said Newark Fire Department spokesman Thaddeus Kennedy. His body was found sprawled on the kitchen floor when firefighters performed an initial sweep of the two-story wood home.

The fire, which was reported at 5:23 a.m. and caused extensive interior damage to the home, was extinguished about 15 minutes later, Kennedy said. The cause of the blaze has not been determined.

The two children who lived with Carter were not home at the time of the fire, according to Kennedy, who said Carter left them with his mother before returning home following a late-night party he attended with family members.

Newark Fire Department arson investigators were trying to determine whether Carter's girlfriend, who stayed with him occasionally, was at the home when the fire started, Kennedy said.

She and others were brought in for questioning by arson investigators after they received conflicting reports, authorities said.

"We're getting a lot of hearsay and we're trying to iron out the hearsay and get to the reality of what happened," Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, family and friends of Carter were struggling with the death of a man known for aptly juggling a boxing career, a full-time job at the Children's Hospital in Mountainside and a hectic family life.

"He was a good father" to his four children, who ranged in age from 8 to 18, said his mother, Christine Carter.

It was unclear when Carter started working at Children's Hospital, but he previously worked as an insurance salesman and was named the 1998 Agent of the Year for United Insurance in Clifton.

Carter, a light-welterweight and a fixture in Newark's boxing scene, had won his last bout, on March 21, at Foxwoods Resort in Connecticut, by unanimous decision against Shakha Moore.

"I don't think there was anybody out there who didn't like this guy, but when he got into the ring he was a boxer," said Luis A. Negron, head trainer at the El Coqui Boxing Club in Newark. "He was the type of boxer who moved a lot and he boxed more as a technical fighter than a slugger. He was very savvy inside the ring."

Carter first stepped into the ring in 1980 when he and his cousin, Jesse Chabers, 34, participated in Operation Turn Around, a Newark youth program. But unlike most of the other kids, Carter fought in the "right-hand stance" of a southpaw.

He turned professional in 1994 and won his first 10 fights, including three by technical knockout, before losing to a more experienced boxer in February 1999 in Biloxi, Miss.

One of the wins included a two-round drubbing of fellow Newark boxer Tony Saladin for the New Jersey welterweight title, a promotional belt designed to spice up the Newark boxing scene.

His passion and his profession made for long hours, but he always had time for his children, Carter's mother said.

"He was trying to do the right thing," said his uncle, Louis Williams.

Carter also was studying to become a minister and attended Cornerstone Baptist Church in East Orange. Pastor Niles Wilson announced Carter's death during yesterday's morning service and asked the 200-member congregation to "pull together as a church family to help support Jamar's children."

"Jamar was an outgoing, active member of the church," Wilson said after the service. "He worked with the youth and men (in the church). He was the kind of brother who would give you the shirt off his back."

Wilson, who has known Carter since he began attending the church six years ago, said, "He will truly be missed. But we realize that God's will is perfect. Unfortunately, death has no age."