On March 29, 2022, Sheila Carey Bryan passed away at the age of 68. Born in Westerly, Rhode Island, she grew up in Rumson and Montreal, Canada before attending Northeastern University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She loved living in beautiful places, including Sun Valley and Boise, Idaho for many years, as well as Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Meadows of Dan, Virginia, and Nantucket, Massachusetts before relocating back to New Jersey where she was living at the time of her death.
Her creativity was legendary. She worked primarily in interior design, where her hallmark was the ability to create interesting but highly functional interiors, always with whimsical elements. She hated pretense and would never allow a client to pursue a beautiful design that would not withstand the onslaught of kids, dogs and normal life. A lifelong animal lover, she always had a menagerie of cats and dogs, and may be the only human being ever to teach a cat to fetch.
Sheila was preceded in death by her son Jenner and her parents, Ray and Dennice Carey. She will be missed by her sister Lisa Carey and brother-in-law Matt Ewend; brother Michael and sister-in-law Kristen Carey; and nephews and nieces, Nash, Kelly and Abby Carey-Ewend and Patrick and Adam Carey; as well as multiple wonderful friends from all the walks of her life.
Memorial services will be held privately. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Jenner Carey Bryan Award for Research in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation, 523 East Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (please note that the gift is for the Jenner Carey Bryan Award (104514), or online at give.unc.edu/donate?f=104514.
Thompson Memorial Home, Red Bank, was entrusted with the arrangements.
The article originally appeared in the April 7 – 13, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
