William T. Carpenter

William T. Carpenter
Nationality	American
Citizenship	U.S.A.
Alma mater	Wofford College Wake Forest University University of Rochester
Occupation	Psychiatrist Clinician-Scientist
Known for	Research on Schizophrenia Expert witness in the John W. Hinckley trial for attempted assassination of President Reagan
Home town	Rutherfordton, North Carolina

William T. Carpenter, M.D. is a psychiatrist, a pioneer in the fields of psychiatry and pharmacology who served as an expert witness in the John W. Hinckley trial for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan. His primary professional interest is in severe mental illness, especially schizophrenia, to the prevention and treatment of which he has made significant contributions in psychopathology, assessment methodology, testing of new treatments, and research ethics.

Carpenter was raised in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, a farming community between Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina. A standout athlete at Wofford College in South Carolina, Carpenter's abilities on the football field attracted the attention of the Baltimore Colts during his senior year in 1957, and the team offered him an opportunity to play professional football on the same team as legendary quarterback Johnny Unitas. After talking to his family and his minister, Carpenter turned them down. The next year, the Colts won the Western Conference championship and went on to defeat the New York Giants in the first overtime game in National Football League history, often referred to as the "greatest game ever played". Carpenter went on to a career in medicine, devoting a 40-plus-year career to the understanding and treatment of severe mental illness.