Margaret Carey

Nov 18, 1940 -

Dec 11, 2024

Margaret Brown Carey, 84, died at Alaska Regional Hospital on Dec. 11, 2024, after a heart attack.

Maggie was born on Nov. 18, 1940, in Glasgow, Scotland, to Robert and Margaret (Sword) Brown. Her parents named her Margaret to escape their parents' bickering over whether the infant should be named Sarah or Katherine.

Robert was employed by the national railway during the German blitz and much of the remainder of the war. He started as a stoker, clad in coal dust, but performed other railway roles as well.

David, Maggie's younger brother, was born in 1945. The children were raised in an extended family of Browns and Swords - who quickly accepted her name - and Maggie fondly remembered visits to the western coast where she spent time with her grandfather Sword, a baker.

Hungry for economic opportunity, Robert moved the family to Toronto in 1952. Years later, Maggie was elated to discover her family's immigration records in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Robert found Toronto too confining and turned to "The States," briefly Chicago, and then Rochester, N.Y., which the family believed ideal – prosperous, green and invitingly urban, not a brawny powerhouse like Chicago.

Maggie graduated from Monroe High School in 1957, at age 16, and earned a B.A. from the University of Rochester in 1961. Restless like her father, she saved money to move west to California and did so, settling in the Bay Area where she lived in San Francisco, Oakland, Redwood City, Palo Alto, and Marin for more than 20 years. In California, Maggie worked in various branches of social services, which exposed her to a wide variety of people in need. Some had been born in the 19th century, the children of slaves.

In 1971, she earned a master's degree in vocational rehabilitation from San Francisco State University and pursued a career as a vocational rehabilitation counselor. She was especially grateful to her mentors in the field, first of all, Cecil Makota. Dr. Mel Newton, Black Panther Huey Newton's older brother, was another supervisor whom she admired for his efforts to improve the lives of those struggling.

Maggie's social work on the streets of Oakland in the '60s gave her a commitment to social justice that never wavered.

In 1983, she married Alaskan Michael Carey, a college classmate of her brother David at Ithaca College in New York. The couple married at the Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco, an architectural gem that survived the 1906 earthquake. Neither Maggie nor Michael were followers of the 18th century Swedish mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg.

In Alaska, Michael briefly worked for the Sheffield Administration in Juneau before moving on to the Anchorage Daily News, where he played many roles for decades. Meanwhile, Maggie used her secretarial skills in law offices before returning to social services. In the 1990s, she was Executive Director of Bean's Cafe, where the clients called her tough but fair.

As a practical Scot, she agreed with Dorothy Day of the Catholic Worker: "Everybody wants to change the world. Nobody wants to wash the dishes."

Her view of the chronically homeless was not sentimental: She believed many were severely damaged, many others severely disconnected from their neighbors, community – and sometimes disconnected from themselves.

Stopped on Fourth Avenue by a homeless man who said he needed money for a meal, Maggie asked "Why don't you go to Bean's?" The man replied roughly "You'd never eat there," to which Maggie answered "I certainly would" – then she recited the morning menu.

Maggie finished her working career as a social security disability adjudicator processing disability claims. A co-worker wrote: "She truly was the most compassionate person I ever worked with in my 26 years …" The co-worker added that Maggie was "an absolute bulldog when it came to finding things: claimants, evidence, documents, volunteers, whatever was needed [to process claims fairly]. She did so with patience and grace and helped not just her claimants but the whole office."

Maggie's non-work passion was Friends of Pets animal rescue. She brought many rescues into the Carey home, several of whom stayed. Especially dogs. The dogs, mentioned by name at her request, included Flurry, Boomer, Patches, Bella, Gracie, Pixel, Kiski and her two favorites, golden retriever Skye and Labrador retriever Abe the Dog, his full name, to distinguish him from several human Abes.

Maggie was preceded in death by her parents, Robert and Margaret Brown. She is survived by her husband Michael of Anchorage; brother, David (Devon Simpson) of Portland, Ore.; and cousins and in-laws of several generations.

Those wishing to make memorial donations are encouraged to give to Friends of Pets.

A service of remembrance will be held in 2025, with suitable advance notice for those who wish to attend.