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Mr. Carey

H. Frank Carey was born in 1897 in what was then the mill town of Laconia, NH.  He was the fifth of a family of 8 children whose mother traced her descent from Captain John Smith and whose father prided himself on being a "John Cary descendant". However, in spite of this elitist New England background, Frank grew up in a wholesome rural atmosphere with no pretensions. At a rather early age his mother died and some years later his father suffered a stroke which incapacitated him to a large extent. It therefore became necessary for all the children to pitch in and do their share of the work. Jobs were obtained for the hours before and after school and during vacations. In that place and at the time only ten percent of children went on to high school and few of those went on to college. In spite of financial handicaps, however, all eight children managed to go to high school and on to some form of higher education. 

Frank graduated from high school as valedictorian and thereby gained the offer of a scholarship to Brown University. With few dollars in his pocket he headed for Providence in 1916 and with the aid of friends, succeeded in finding jobs that would keep him in board and room. He has often said that financial situations forced him to get good marks. In any event, he was elected to the honorary fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year and graduated with honors.

Upon graduation in 1920 he was recruited by General Electric in their cost control department. This started him off so that he has been involved ever since in some aspect of cost control. In 1922 he married his childhood sweetheart, a girl of pure German extraction. Together they first settled in New Jersey and then gradually moved to Garden City South.

In 1932 he found his final remunerative employment with the Long Island Lighting Company where he served as Assistant Controller until retirement in 1962. In the same year he was elected to the Board of Education of Franklin Square where he continued to serve for 27 years. Off and on, during that period, he was chosen to serve concurrently on the Sewanhaka Central High School Board where he continued for 18 years, most of that time as its president. During his period of service the school system was growing rapidly. There was always a building project either on paper or in actual construction. The culmination was the building of five high schools and their dedication all in one day. The High School Board had asked each local community to determine a name for its high school. One evening the Board of Education heard a delegation from Franklin Square who announced that they represented 32 organizations in that community who were in unanimous agreement that their school should be named the H. Frank Carey High School. Mr. Carey protested that he would be unable to live up to such an honor but he was told that, though president, he had no say in the matter. 

His marital union was blessed by three daughters, Barbara, Alice and Eleanor, all of whom married ambitious young men whose work took them sometimes to distant places. In recent years, however, the homing instinct has brought them back to Long Island where the whole family is gathered quite close together for the easy exchange of baby-sitters, recipes, and advice. Of twelve grandchildren, only one has thus far flown from the nest and settled in married life away from Long Island.

Six months before his retirement his wife, Eleanor died of a heart attack, leaving a void in his life and precluding the usual plans for retirement leisure and travel. After a period of adjustment involving consultant work and voluntary service to the Long Island Fund (predecessor to the United Fund of Long Island) he became interested in one of its agencies, the Dorothy K Robin Child Care Center. He came with them in early 1965 to superintend a project for the Long Island Fund. During the last six months of that year he was called away by US AID to serve in Iran on a survey of the power needs of that country. Upon his return he found that the Board of the Child Care Center expected him to continue to serve them and upon his showing reluctance or bashfulness they elected him Vice President. His functions as such have evolved into those of Chief Fiscal Officer, Property Manager and General Factotum. He has watched this 30 year old institution in its growth from a small, poorly equipped school to what it is now probably one of the largest and finest of its kind in the country. His delight is not only in the functioning of the Center in the area of his supposed interest but in his contacts with bright and active children of both races.

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