Union Switch & Signal engineer called a meticulous gentleman
Despite his porcelain skin that was prone to sunburn, Andrew Carey decided in 1986 to buy a timeshare in Hilton Head, S.C., for his wife, Dorothy, without ever having visited. Everything he knew about the island came from his wife’s knowledge, drawn from an issue of Southern Living magazine.
Decades later, the onebedroom condominium served as home base for the “Pappy pancakes” Mr. Carey served his grandchildren during weeklong vacations. Adding a pinch of vanilla extract to Aunt Jemima pancake mix, he divvied up batter into individual Dixie cups, measuring just the right amount.
“He would calculate how many pancakes he could get out of each batch,” said his oldest daughter, Debbie Carey Stevens of Knoxville, Tenn.
Mr. Carey had spent his entire 45-year career being meticulous. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in electrical engineering, he worked at Union Switch & Signal, now Ansaldo, developing patents for railroad technology. He eventually rose to become vice president of research and development.
On Thursday, Mr. Carey of West Mifflin died at UPMC Passavant of natural causes. He was 92 years old.
Growing up in Duquesne during the Great Depression, Mr. Carey held a series of odd jobs, beginning at age 9 as a newspaper delivery boy. He delivered ice in the summer and coal in the winter and worked at Kennywood as a teenager. Before attending college, Mr. Carey worked for a steel mill on a riverboat barge, where he would memorize logarithmic tables in his head.
“He could tell you the square root of a seven-digit number in a heartbeat,” Ms. Carey Stevens said.
Right after graduating college, Mr. Carey began work as a signal engineer, designing control systems for trains. Jim Ausefski of the North Hills, a close friend and former coworker, said Mr. Carey was “clearly a gentleman and a gentle man.”
“I know he had everyone’s respect at work,” he said. “I never heard Andy yell at anyone, ever.”
After moving to West Mifflin with his wife and children, Mr. Carey joined Resurrection Catholic Church, where he became exceptionally involved. He served as teacher for an eighth-grade boys CCD confirmation class for more than 25 years and was honored as Grand Knight for the Knights of Columbus Council #4210.
“My dad generally left the house before 7 a.m. to go to work and was very rarely home before 6 p.m., but always found time to support others,” Ms. Carey Stevens said.
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Carey is survived by four other children: Thomas Carey of Peters, Linda Carey of Mars, David Carey of Plum and Barbara Carey Henninger of Mount Washington. He is also survived by his sister Annie Carey Sage of Philadelphia and seven grandchildren.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at Resurrection Catholic Church in West Mifflin. Interment will follow in Calvary Cemetery.