A football and baseball standout at Joplin Parkwood High School, Greg lettered four years in baseball and three in football. The Bears football team coached by Dewey Combs lost only one game during Carlton’s three years, losing to Springfield Glendale on a two-point conversion.
After an outstanding high school and American Legion baseball career, Greg was recruited by Oklahoma University coach Enos Semore and lettered four years for the Sooners. He played left field as a freshman and Oklahoma won the Big Eight Conference title. He moved to third base as a sophomore, played second base as a junior and was shifted back to third for his senior year.
As a junior, Greg led the Sooners in hitting with a .397 average. He received a lot of exposure that season and had a lot of interest from pro scouts. But the son of David and Karen Carlton had his heart set on working toward a degree in dentistry.
After receiving a degree in Chemistry form OU, Greg was accepted in Dental School, but went into spring training and worked out with the San Francisco Giants. An ankle injury ended his pro baseball career.
After finishing his degree at Oklahoma, the Dow Chemical Company offered him a job in Houston and he worked for Dow for five years. He then worked for Merrill Lynch in Oklahoma City where several of his clients were in the used oil business.
“They would clean up the old oil and sell it for a fuel substitute,” Greg says. He handled sales for that company for seven years before moving to Springfield, Missouri, in 1997 and is now employed as a chemist and senior sales executive by Brenntag International, a national chemical distributor.
Greg is married to former Jennifer Benningfield of Bartlesville, Ok., and they have three children, daughter Taylor, and sons Jack, and Grant.
Greg has two brothers, David Lee (Bubba), and Travis, and sister, Kelly.
