Andrew G. Carey Jr. ’55

Drew was born April 11, 1932, in Baltimore, son of Andrew Carey Sr. 1921. He grew up outside Baltimore on a horse farm and attended the Gilman School and then Millbrook School. He majored in biology at Princeton, joined Charter Club, and received a doctorate in benthic oceanography from Yale in 1961.

While attending a summer course at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, he met Elizabeth Menges; they married in 1957. After graduate school, Drew taught at Oregon State University from 1961 to 1987. He published 40 papers on his research.

Drew taught graduate school and led many research expeditions to the Arctic. He also studied the hot air vents off the Oregon Coast, going down in submersibles when one could only go in conjunction with the Navy.

He and Liz retired to Chatham, Cape Cod, where they had an old captain’s house on the water. This led to his career in oceanographic research and teaching. He was an avid small boater, sailor, rower, and cruiser and a skier and tennis player. Drew had a passion for travel, including four sabbatical leaves at foreign universities. He traveled extensively, including sailing around Cape Horn with college friends Kerck Kelsey and Dick Walker.

He loved the Boston Symphony, plays, reading, and music. He was a strong supporter of local conservation and his dog Tango, a golden mix, was his best friend and companion, Curious and passionate to the end, he was writing letters to The New York Times to protest taking away a woman’s right to choose in his 90s. He was predeceased by his first wife, Elizabeth, in 2000, after 43 years of happy marriage. His second wife, Alison Fletcher Carey, has had Alzheimer’s for 16 years and lives in Seattle.

Drew died May 1, 2025. He is survived by his son, Todd Carey; daughter Arianne Carey Burnham; their spouses; and three grandchildren. Drew had advanced prostate cancer and chose to use Death with Dignity. He died 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” accompanying him.