Joseph N. Karey
Baltimore native was former attorney, Baltimore County Board of Elections secretary and Oriole Advocates president
Joseph N. Karey, a retired attorney who was a past secretary of the Baltimore County Board of Elections and president of the fan group Oriole Advocates, died of respiratory failure Saturday at Brightview Towson, an assisted living facility. He was 90.
Born in Baltimore and raised on William Street, he was the son of Joseph Karcauskas, a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad machinist, and Margaret Kraft Karcauskas, who worked in several posts at a South Baltimore netting factory. He later changed his last name to Karey.
A 1951 graduate of Mount Saint Joseph High School, where he was a wrestler and basketball player, he earned a bachelor’s degree from what is now Loyola University Maryland.
He met his future wife, Mary Patricia Fuchs, on a trip to Ocean City.
He served in the Navy aboard the USS Moale. He then earned a master’s degree in business at New York University and was a 1965 graduate of the then-University of Maryland School of Law.
Mr. Karey began his legal career at the insurance company Transit Casualty, which was associated with the old Baltimore Transit Co. on Washington Boulevard.
He then went into private practice and continued to specialize in insurance work before retiring in 2016.
Mr. Karey joined the downtown Baltimore firm of O’Doherty, Nead and Hoffman and after moving his practice to Chesapeake Avenue in Towson, was associated with Nead, Karey and Minton.
“My father was a calm listener,” said his daughter, Abigail Karey. “He gave you his undivided attention. His demeanor was not at all flamboyant. He was always able to help someone.
“He was not one to get caught up in the little things. He was a man who looked at the big picture.”
Mr. Karey enjoyed a wide circle of friends and spent Fridays at lunches with his associates from the insurance industry and the legal profession.
“My father was not a drinker and he just liked being around people,” his daughter said.
A Republican, he was named secretary of the Baltimore County Board of Elections for its 2011-to-2015 term. He was also legal counsel to the elections board before he held a position on it.
In a 1994 Sun story, he described how Baltimore County was dealing with election gridlock in the Maryland governor’s race between Ellen R. Sauerbrey, the Republican candidate, and Parris N. Glendening, the Democratic candidate and eventual winner.
In Baltimore County, Democrats demanded to check the signature on each of 6,567 absentee ballot envelopes against the signature as recorded on the voting rolls, The Sun’s story said. Democrats wound up challenging more than two-thirds of the ballots because there were no signed affidavits on file for them.
In the news account, Mr. Karey said counting ballots without affidavits had been done “in many, many elections and I don’t think we should change it now, even though it might change the election.”
An avid sports fan, he was the 1978-to-1979 president of the Oriole Advocates and attended several inductions of Baltimore Orioles players to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
He also had season tickets to the then-Baltimore Colts.
“My father was a Baltimore boy. He loved the old Colts and I can remember sitting at Memorial Stadium on a snowy day with him,” said his daughter.
In his free time, Mr. Karey enjoyed skiing and golf. He remained an enthusiastic alumnus of Mount Saint Joseph and attended gatherings of his classmates for many years.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Ruck Funeral Homes at 1050 York Road in Towson.
Survivors include his wife of 65 years, the former Mary Patricia Fuchs, a homemaker; two daughters, Abigail Karey of Catonsville and Amy Weber of Bowleys Quarters; a son, J. Alexander Karey of Towson; and six grandchildren.