ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Former RIT athletic director and men's basketball coach Bill Carey passed away last week at 95 years old. The RIT Hall of Famer's athletic career spanned more than seven decades, including 14-years at RIT. 
 
Carey grew up in the town of Constableville, N.Y. on the base of the Adirondack Mountains and excelled scholastically in soccer, basketball and baseball before graduating from high school in 1945. After a stint in the Army serving in Okinawa, Japan, he attended SUNY Cortland, where he was a standout in basketball and baseball. Carey is remembered for hurling a no-hitter on the baseball diamond for the Red Dragons as a senior in 1950 against the University of Bridgeport.
 
His first job came at Kings Ferry High School in Cayuga County before moving on to make a significant impact during a 12-year run as basketball and baseball coach at Waterloo High School. He won two Section Five baseball titles and four basketball championships, including three straight (1963, 1964, 1965). It was at Waterloo where he coached Tom Coughlin, who went on to become a two-time Super Bowl winning NFL coach with the New York Giants.
 
"He was the ultimate role model and my inspiration to become a coach," Coughlin said. "He was an incredible mentor and one of the greatest examples of loyalty I've ever seen."
 
It was Carey's loyalty, Coughlin recalled, that led him to his first head coaching position at RIT in 1970. That served as a springboard to a distinguished career that included head positions with the Jacksonville Jaguars as well as the Giants.
 
In 1966, Carey was hired to coach the freshman basketball team at RIT and was elevated to head varsity coach two years later. He stepped down in 1980 as the winningest basketball coach in program history with a 162-124 record. His teams captured four Chase Scholarship Basketball Tournament titles and he became a charter member of the tournament's Hall of Fame in 1997. His 1975-76 team went 20-7 and made the Tigers' first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
 
Carey also served as athletic director at RIT for three years before accepting a similar role at Nazareth in 1980, leading the Golden Flyers for the next 18 years before retiring in 1998. During his tenure, Carey served as chair of the NCAA East Region Men's Basketball and Men's Ice Hockey Committees and ECAC selection committees for men's basketball and women's soccer.
 
"Bill Carey made a significant impact on college athletics in general and specifically upon the lives of hundreds of coaches and thousands of student athletes over the span of his impressive career," said Lou Spiotti, Jr. who coached the RIT football team from 1974-80 before serving as RIT's Executive Director of Athletics upon Carey's move to Nazareth. "While many know of him as fiercely competitive, those who got to know the real Bill Carey understood him to be a kind and gentle soul. He cared deeply about all those who had the good fortune to come in contact with him. He will be greatly missed."
 
Perhaps more understated were the thousands of relationships he established. Among his loyal disciples were Fran Pascarella, who served as Carey's administrative assistant at both RIT and Nazareth, and Bill Nelson, who was an assistant coach for Carey at RIT and later enjoyed a 37-year run of his own as a college head coach at RIT, Nazareth and Johns Hopkins.
 
"Without Bill Carey in my life, I wouldn't be the person I am today," Pascarella said. "He was a wonderful person who had the ability to roll with any of the challenges he was presented."
 
"Bill was all about caring, respect and loyalty," Nelson said, "and he surrounded himself with people who fit the same way. He had a great feel for not only coaching but for people."
 
Carey is a member of Halls of Fame at Cortland, RIT, Nazareth and Waterloo High School. In 1990, he was honored with the Rochester Press-Radio Club's Al Weber Award, for lifetime achievement, including his outstanding contributions to local basketball. He is a member of the Walk of Fame at Innovative Field. In 2015, Carey was the recipient of the Marv Foley Award for outstanding commitment and support to Challenger Baseball, a local organization that serves boys and girls with disabilities.
 
Carey is predeceased by his son, Michael Carey, and grandson, Jason Blair. In addition to his wife of 71 years Barbara, he is survived by his daughter Elizabeth Carey; grandchildren Laurel Carey (Scott Posadny), Michael Carey (Kaitlin), Carie Garlock and Douglas Blair (Treena); and great-grandchildren Brianna, Alivia, Talen, Rilee, Mikey, Tayler, Jacob, Ethan and Marley.
 
There are no calling hours, but a memorial mass will be held Friday, Sept. 8 at 11 a.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 26 Mendon-Ionia Rd., Mendon, N.Y. A private burial will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation, PO Box 50798, Jacksonville, Fla. 32240.
 
Contributions to the story courtesy of Nazareth Athletic Communications.