Andrew (Drew) Galbraith Carey, Jr.

Drew grew up outside of Baltimore on an equestrian farm and happily spent summers on Bridge Street in Chatham running about with his sister and cousins. He attended the Gilman School and then Millbrook for his high school years. He was a Biology major at Princeton (1951-55) and received a PhD in Zoology-Marine Ecology from Yale (1956-61). He spent much time in Chatham over the years which influenced his career in Oceanography.
   While attending a course at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute one summer, he met his future wife, Elizabeth (Liz) Menges of Nantucket who he married in 1957. After graduate school, Drew accepted a professorial position at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon and taught there from 1961-1987. He published 40 papers on his research, specializing in Ecology of Invertebrate Animal Communities and the Continental Shelf to Abyssal Plains in the NE Pacific and Arctic Oceans. Drew taught graduate school and led many research expeditions to the Arctic. He also studied the hot air vents off of the Oregon Coast, using a naval research submersible.
He and Liz retired to Chatham, Massachusetts, where they had an old captain’s house on the Oyster Pond. Drew spent many years volunteering with Water Watch and conducting private research on the nitrogen load and pollution in the waters off of Chatham. He loved supporting his favorite local groups including: The Orpheum Theater, the Monomoy Theater and the Atwood House. He was an avid small boater, sailor, rower, and cruiser. He was an enthusiastic skier and tennis player. Drew had a passion for travel, including four sabbatical leaves at foreign universities. He traveled extensively in his retired years: around Cape Horn with college friends and a captain, hiking in Greece, sailing in Croatia and many oceanographic conferences around the world from Japan to Iceland.
He loved the Boston Symphony, plays, reading and music. He belonged to the Chatham Beach Club, The Stage Harbor Yacht Club and the Monomoy Yacht Club. Drew was a strong supporter of local conservation groups and loved walking on the trails with his dog. Curious and passionate to the end, in his 90s he was writing letters to the NYT to protest taking away a woman’s right to choose. He was predeceased by his first wife, Elizabeth van Kleeck Menges Carey of Nantucket in 2000, after 43 years of happy marriage. In 2003 he married Alison Fletcher Carey of Baltimore and felt so lucky to have a second, wonderful partner. They lived in Chatham and Oregon for 20 years. Alison lives outside of Seattle in senior adult family home.
He is survived by his son, Todd Loring Carey, and daughter, Arianne Carey Burnham, their spouses and three grandchildren as well as his step sons, Cody and Clay Walker, their spouses and children. He was so pleased to have an extended family that all got along and enjoyed each other’s company. He leaves his beloved dog, Tango, a golden mix, as his best friend and companion. Drew had advanced prostate cancer and choose to use Death with Dignity. He left us at age 93, surrounded by love and family, in his mountain home in Central Oregon, in front of a roaring fire with Handel’s Water Music paving his way. Always the gentleman, he was known for his generosity and kindheartedness.
We would like to thank the dozens of people in Chatham who helped our parents live full and wonderful lives in Chatham over the last thirty years. They could not have lived independently for so long without all the kindness and support shown to them. They loved living in Chatham. Thank you.