After graduating from Gannon University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, John Carver spent six years on Buffalo's waterfront loading boxcars with one hundred pound bags of flour and later, cutting and milling steel at a processing plant. He spent the next 41 years as an inside and outside salesman in the steel, aluminum and copper industries traveling eight states, two provinces and Mexico. He and his wife of 48 years, Mary Ellen, raised 3 children, two of which served in the Iraq war, and have 11 grandchildren. They have been members of St Paul's Parish in Kenmore, NY since 1976 devoting much of their time to its mission. He sees his extended family of 7 siblings and 30 first cousins regularly, spending time with many of them at their shared property in the Southern Tier of New York State.