CAREY MONSERRATE

MONSERRATE--Carey. The friends and family of Carey Monserrate are grieving for him, with love and sorrow. Carey was born in New York City on October 28, 1970, and died there on December 28, 2011. He grew up largely in Providence, Rhode Island, graduating from the Wheeler School in 1988, and then cum laude from Harvard, where he studied English and American Literature as a member of the class of 1992. He formed many close friendships in his school years-and everywhere he went-which endured throughout his life. Carey was a writer, editor, poet, and musician. He lived with an openness to the world and to the experiences of others: born Catholic, he considered himself culturally Jewish and spiritually Zen Buddhist. In Red Hook, Brooklyn, he was well known as a community activist, engaged with his neighbors on issues ranging from helicopter-noise pollution to economic justice; he was also the founding manager of the Red Hook Wobblies softball team. He would cook for friends and loved ones or gather them for expeditions to Chinatown restaurants, and talk with them for hours around the table. His conversation, like his correspondence and his kindness, could lighten their darkest moments. Carey took his own life. His mother, Rose Monserrate, mourns the loss of her beloved son. Carey is also survived by his paternal grandmother and a loving circle of uncles, aunts, cousins, and step- and half-siblings. A memorial in New York is being planned. In Carey's memory, donations may be made to Added Value, www.added-value.org, or to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship: www.bpf.org.