Carl Edward Abial Lathrop, son of Abial Lathrop and Martha Fredricka Heidtman Lathrop, was born on October 6, 1881 in Orangeburg South Carolina. He attended Clemson Agricultural College 1901-1905, graduating with a degree in mechanical and electrical engineering. During the following decades he worked as an engineer and electrician in Tennessee and Pennsylvania before returning to South Carolina to manage a gas station in Eutauville in 1940. Lathrop retired as an engineer from the ITE Imperial Corporation and lived in Wilmington North Carolina until his death on October 18, 1983.