In Memoriam

Churchill G. Carey, Jr.

Church Carey
1964 graduation

SPRUCE HEAD, ME - Churchill G. Carey, Jr. died peacefully in Camden, Maine on the evening of December 17th, 2011, surrounded by family. He died from complications of early-onset Alzheimer's.

Church was born in Baltimore, MD in 1942. He attended the Hotchkiss School, then graduated from Yale in 1964. A history major, Church was in Branford College and a member of Fence Club. He played on Branford's soccer and baseball teams his sophomore and junior years and was a member of the college council his senior year. He was active in local charities, an interest he maintained throughout his life, serving as the Branford College captain for the Charities Drive his junior year.

Upon graduation, he volunteered for the Peace Corps, working in Filadelfia, Costa Rica from 1964 to 1966. The experience there was a defining one, inspiring in Church a continuing dedication to community service.

After the Peace Corps, he went to Harvard Business School. He and Mary Ann Mitch were married in 1968 and moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he was in charge of a very small mortgage banking operation. Over the next thirty years he developed what would become Puerto Rico Home Mortgage, one of the largest mortgage companies in the Caribbean. He assumed sole ownership in 1991, and sold the company to Banco Popular in 1995. He continued to run Popular's mortgage subsidiary until 1998.

Church was member of the United Way of Puerto Rico's executive committee from 1976 to 2000, serving as committee president from 1991-93. He served on the board of directors for the United Way International from 1998 to 2002. He was an active participant in various organizations that supported community development on the Island, including the Greater San Juan Committee. He was on the board of directors for the Project for the Development of the Peninsula de Cantera, a redevelopment project for a community of 3,700 families in San Juan.

Church and Mary Ann began to divide their time between Puerto Rico and Maine after his retirement in the early 2000s. Church had visited Port Clyde and Tenants Harbor since childhood. They moved permanently to Spruce Head, Maine in 2007. Church resumed volunteering, becoming involved with Mid-Coast Charities and the George's River Land Trust.

His mood always lifted when the Orioles reported to spring training, and he never cared for football after the Colts were moved out of Baltimore.

Church is survived by his wife, his sisters and their partners: Jane Carey and Molly Van Nice of Somerville, MA; Juliet Carey and Barbara Parton of Cambridge, MA; and the families of his three children: Javier Carey and Jackie Pitera of San Francisco, CA; Tim and Suzie Carey, and their children Dennis, William and Louis of Gainesville, GA; and Elizabeth and Caton Burwell, and their children Church and Juliet of Alexandria, VA.

A memorial service will be held at the St. George's summer chapel in June in Tenants Harbor, Maine. Memorial donations may be made to United Mid-Coast Charities, P.O. Box 205, Camden, ME 04843 or Kno-Wal-Lin Home Care/Hospice. 170 Pleasant Street, Rockland, ME 04841.

Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland. To share a memory or story with Church's family, please visit his guest book at www.bchfh.com.