At various years (Ralph H. Carpenter Body Company, Carpenter Body Works, Carpenter Manufacturing Company, Carpenter Industries, Crown by Carpenter) was a major manufacturer of school buses. The firm, founded by R. Carpenter in Indiana in 1919, produced its first car four years later. Before that it had produced horse-drawn carriages to transport schoolchildren, so it had no problem adapting superstructures on automobile chassis.
It is noteworthy that it was on Carpenter buses that the hinged stop signs, so famous now, appeared for the first time. They were made in the form of hinged fists with an index finger painted red.
For the next 60 years, the company produced the typical conventional Cadet, Classmate and Classic school buses.
In 1998, the company Spartan, a manufacturer of chassis, including bus chassis, bought Carpenter.
The cabover Chancellor RE on Spartan chassis became a flagship of the school. Its features included air suspension on both axles, a flat floor, and wheels reduced to 19″ in diameter.
However, in 2001, due to the market crisis, the new owner decided to close production of school cars.