Obituary of Robert Carey

September 29, 2026

Robert Brian Carey, Ph.D. December 16, 1939 – September 29, 2026 Robert Brian Carey, historian, educator, and minister, died peacefully on September 29, 2026, after a long illness. He was 86. Bob was born in Meriden, Connecticut, to Dr. William Clarke Carey and Antoinette Rogers. He was the third of four children, with two older brothers, William and Peter, and a younger sister, Elizabeth, all of whom predeceased him. Bob earned his B.A. in English from Wesleyan University (1961), his master's degrees in divinity and sacred theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York City (1966, 1968), and his Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University (1984). His scholarship and writing focused on America's racial and religious history, the history of food and disease, and critical reading. From 1962 to 1965, Bob served as an intern and assistant minister under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He later served as director of the Atlanta Council on Human Relations. In the summer of 1962, Bob and Pat met as participants in Operation Crossroads Africa, a forerunner of the Peace Corps, where they worked alongside local villagers on service projects. They married in Chicago on August 28, 1965, and moved to New York, where they raised their daughter, Meredith Brooke, and their son, Jason Morris. Bob's work in New York City began in East Harlem, where he was a community organizer with the City Society of the United Methodist Church. He also worked in local politics and briefly in the Field Office at Union. In 1973, Bob joined Empire State College, now SUNY Empire State University, and spent the next 45 years there. His leadership roles included associate dean of the Metropolitan Center, dean of Graduate Studies, and coordinator of the Staten Island Unit. He helped develop and launch the college's Black Male Initiative and the Fortified Classroom. He retired as SUNY Professor Emeritus in 2018. Bob was deeply involved in the life of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and its resident congregation, St. Saviour. He also found a calling in adult education with Literacy Partners, Inc. An avid cyclist, he rode in five of New York's Five Boro Bike Tours. At home, Bob was devoted, protective, and famously witty. He and Pat traveled the world together, and he joined her NYU Student Scholar Travel Colloquia as the group's "Map Man" and resident historian. Along the way, he taught his children to be observers of the world around them. His support for them was steady and practical. He knew when to guide them, when to let them fall, and how to give them the courage to keep going. Bob believed in something greater than himself, and his life reflected that belief. His work mattered, and it will live on in the many people he touched and who touched him. He is survived by Pat, Meredith, and Jason, and a host of family and friends from sea to shining sea.