Constance Carey, 83; fought for the needy at aid agency

CONSTANCE CAREY

During her almost 30 years of working with a nonprofit aid agency, Constance (Prendergast) Carey, helped to provide food, fuel, medical care, and hope to tens of thousands of low-income families in Boston, Brookline, and Newton.

When neighbors called Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD, with concerns about elderly residents who stayed in bed all day to keep warm, Mrs. Carey saw to it that they got blankets and heat. When a newly arrived Vietnamese family was found sleeping in their car one frigid night, Mrs. Carey persuaded a Dorchester fuel company to provide fuel given by donors at discount prices for the rest of the winter.

Mrs. Carey, who retired from ABCD in 1990 but was called back for several years as a consultant, died Nov. 2 of cancer at the Bourne home of her daughter Lynne York. She was 83.

"Mother was an incredible human being," York said. "She could sit at a table with an ordinary person or a president and treated them both the same."

Mrs. Carey lived in Wareham for 30 years. She and her husband, James, spent winters at their home in Englewood, Fla. They had been married for 61 years when Mr. Carey died in July.

Colleagues remember Mrs. Carey as a compassionate and feisty fighter for the needy. The stories of her rescues during 10 years as director of ABCD's energy program, and earlier while directing its other human services, are myriad and largely untold, they said.

"Connie was a modest woman," said Robert Coard, president and chief executive officer of Action for Boston Community Development, which formed during the 1960s. "She worked in the background and inspired those who worked with her."

Mrs. Carey was able to cut through the intricate regulations of fuel allotments, colleagues said. She directed a staff of 100 in the energy program, dealt with 2,000 oil dealers, and worked with 29,000 families. She also had to get the state to release in a timely fashion the money that came in from the federal government.

"Connie was a great administrator," Coard said. "She did it all in a low-keyed and straightforward way. People listened to her."

When Mrs. Carey worked in the agency's Allston-Brighton office in the late '60s and early '70s, she saw that just providing fuel to the needy was not enough; many heating systems were in dire need of repair and were wasting fuel, said Kathy Tobin, the current director of ABCD's energy program.

"Connie put together a program that some of the money allotted for the fuel be used to repair the heating systems," Tobin said. "Human services agencies across the state followed her lead, and the program is still in effect statewide."

While in Allston-Brighton, Mrs. Carey was instrumental in creating the Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center and a halfway house for recovering alcoholics. She helped start one of the area's first food distribution programs.

Her work at Allston-Brighton so impressed Coard that he brought her into the agency's headquarters.

Mrs. Carey launched a community alcoholism program, directed the agency's health services, and oversaw the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program and family-planning education, among other programs.

To some at the time, family planning was a red flag, said John Drew, executive vice president of ABCD.

"Connie not only helped organize the whole family planning program, she was the one who kept it together," Drew said. "In those days, people equated family planning with abortion, and she heard a lot from the conservative right.

"Connie was a vital force, the ultimate professional, tough but kind. She always knew how to make things happen."

The challenging fuel-management program was perhaps her greatest contribution, colleagues said.

"In the face of severe federal cutbacks in fuel allotments, Connie strived to maintain our fuel assistance program and maximize assistance," Coard said.

She inspired other women.

"Connie was a strong female manager when I worked with her and a great role model for me," said Susan Kooperstein, ABCD spokeswoman. "She was a strong voice, a feisty voice, but she was always extremely pleasant and got along with people."

Mrs. Carey's appearance might have belied her tenacity: a curly head of once-blond hair turned gray and big, blue eyes, a gravelly voice, and a ready smile, Kooperstein said. She had charisma. "Connie could sweet talk oil dealers and legislators alike" with a "Look, sweetie," or "Look, honey," when immediate help was needed for a client and the bureaucratic reaction was slow, Coard said.

Mrs. Carey was born in North Adams, one of two daughters of Thomas F. and Blanche (Jerome) Prendergast. She first met James Carey when he was 14 and she was 13. They were high school sweethearts.

He graduated from Bentley College, where he studied accounting and ran a cab company, York said. When they moved to the Boston area, Mrs. Carey was for a time a bookkeeper at the Kenmore Hotel in Boston, according to another daughter Lisa of Lynn. She said her mother was "a warm, kind-hearted human being." Mrs. Carey's sister, Patricia Prendergast, a retired dean at the former North Adams State College, said, "She always had a desire to help those who needed help."

Coard said ABCD would establish the Connie Carey Memorial Fuel Assistance State Fund.

In addition to her two daughters and her sister, Mrs. Carey leaves a grandson.

Services will be private.