Carol Ellison Garey

Carol Garey of Chatham, Massachusetts, aged 78, died on June 25, 2023, her 57th wedding anniversary, after a three-year battle with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Carol enjoyed a varied and accomplished professional career but truly loved her roles as wife, mother and grandmother the most.

Queen regent of cocktail hour, dogged defender of family dinners and provider of delicious meals always served with an accompaniment of spicy conversation, she loved cocktails and dinner most of all because it was a time to talk. Carol was a woman who always spared you the effort of wondering what she was thinking. An endlessly impish observer of human foibles and a passionate co-conspirator, she had a rakish wit and was its biggest fan.

Born on September 22, 1944 in White Plains, New York to Helen Costello Ellison and Edward William Ellison, Carol graduated from New Canaan High School and from Skidmore College with high honors in 1966. She married her college sweetheart, John Garey, in 1966, and the couple moved to Honolulu where John served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Vietnam War. Following the stint in Hawaii, Carol had a varied professional career as a manufacturer's rep for Waterford Crystal, an IBM manager selling personal computers, and an independent school administrator. For 20 years she was a fixture in the Headmaster’s Office at Tabor Academy where she served as the Assistant to the Headmaster and Director of Financial Aid. She adored her interactions with her boss, appreciated intellectual conversations with the faculty members and loved watching generations of students live and learn on campus; it was her second home. In addition, she served for six years on the finance committee for Marion, Massachusetts, and six years as a trustee of the Eldredge Public Library in Chatham.

She could also be heard in the stands of her grandkids’ games, often better known to other fans than the players’ own parents — a superfan of the St. Stephen’s Spartans, the Trinity Bantams, the Cohasset Skippers, and Coast Guard Academy Bears. She was a community hub, the anchor of her family, beloved and deeply missed.

In the summers, she was a fixture on Harding's beach. Actually, "fixture" is the opposite of what Carol was at the beach. She was a lunch-distributing, clam-collecting, beach-walking, shell-gathering facilitator of all oceanside activities. She was at the heart of Chatham for her family and gave shape, structure and meaning to the Garey’s most significant and enduring family tradition – a summer at the beach.

Her greatest pride and joy in life came as wife to John for 57 years, mother to her two daughters, Kimberly Anne Garey (Clay Nichols) and Helen Kendall Garey (Matthew Herndon). As a young Coast Guard spouse living in Honolulu during the Vietnam War, Carol came across the Hawaiian word for "grandmother" and hatched a plan. On the occasion of the birth of her first grandchild, she announced that she would, from then on, be known as "Tutu.” Grandchildren LTJG Wilson Nichols (Kirsten Carson), Riley Nichols, Cooper Nichols, Taylor Herndon and Luke Herndon were lucky to grow up with her in their lives. She is also survived by her sisters, Deann Murphy and Sharon Johnson, and her two sister-in-laws, Anne Bonney and Barbara Brady.

A Memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church of Chatham on July 12 at 11:00 am with a reception following.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Friends of Eldredge Public Library in memory of Carol Garey.