Chris Carney
When ten-year-old Chris Carney came down the driveway for the first time in the summer of 1967, he, like any first-year camper, was apprehensive. It wasn’t his first time in Maine, but Birch Rock was a long way from his family’s summer cottage in the coastal town of Harpswell, and four weeks in an unknown place with new people seemed like an eternity. But he was in good hands, his parents assured him. His father knew Chief and Onie Brewster from his time at Kimball-Union Academy, even working in the kitchen there with Albert during the Korean War.
Chris was welcomed into Cabin 3 by counselor Richie Monroe, who was eager to get the parents gone so Chris and his cabinmates, one of whom was Pete Haas, could jump into the Birch Rock experience without further delay. Little did Chris know that it was the first step on a journey that would help define who he was to become over the next half-century. For six summers he spread his wings and made the most of his time as a camper. There were the trips with Mike Denault, including the adventure down the full length of the Crooked River during which the rapids mangled a canoe and they spent the night in a field in awestruck fear of a wicked lightning storm. Chris still retains many of the memories from his early years on the hill including sailing lessons with Peter Herzig, a mini golf course in Cabin 8, walking the nature trail behind Buzzards Roost and many first rest periods sprawled on his bed with Hardy Boys novels. The independence and character building of those summers, he now says, were “irreplaceable.”
Eager to extend his camper experience to those coming up behind him, he graduated to CIT in the summer of ’72 and then joined the staff for the next two summers. Those were the days of canvas canoes, wooden rowboats, and leaky Turnabouts with which he had to teach sailing, not to mention the precariously leaning boathouse, but “spirit was high and we made do with what we had,” he says. He recalls hot movie nights watching reels that came in the mail, playing bingo with beans, and always scrubbing with gold Dial soap because Chief insisted on it to prevent infections of the myriad cuts and scrapes boys got around camp. He distinctly remembers the arrival of first-year camper Rich Deering in Hilton B and having to tell his mother to stop assembling his bed. “We’re all going to learn to make our beds together,” he told her.
There was also adversity in his days on staff. When Chief passed away early in the summer of ‘73, they rallied together to keep the wheels turning however they could, taking care of their campers as well as Onie. And, the following summer, when the new director split early, Chris and the rest of the staff were left to shut camp down for the season on their own. Chris was lucky enough to land the plum assignment of being Onie’s personal driver in the summer of ’74, chauffeuring her into town in a gold-and-black Pontiac sedan to get her hair done and go to the bank. Like everyone, he also loved working in the kitchen with Albert, and they had many a political conversation about the ongoing Watergate saga. And there were, of course, the less glamorous responsibilities; back then, being on Patrol meant sitting in the old, smelly Upper Washhouse alone with a bug light until midnight so boys could do their business safely if nature called. All part of helping the other fellow.
Meanwhile, Chris had finished at the Holderness School in New Hampshire and enrolled in the famed hotel school at Cornell University, and, as his life began to arc in the direction of that profession, his summers at Birch Rock came to a close. Or so he thought. In the summer of ’76, his job at a lobster shack in Harpswell fell through unexpectedly, leaving him in the lurch. Although camp had already started, he called Mike Denault and asked him if he needed any help. He did. Chris’s parents were in Europe at the time and there was no way to contact them, so he packed up the car, took their golden retriever named Ginger, and left a note on the cottage door saying he was at Birch Rock. It would be the last of his nine summers on the hillside, but he stayed involved as a board member in the 80s and has always been a friend of Birch Rock. He went on to great success in the hospitality industry with Ritz- Carlton and Sheraton hotels, then transitioned into the real estate side of the business and worked for Fidelity for fourteen years. He retired in 2008 and moved from Boston to Maine the following year with his wife, Karen, and now dedicates much of his time to volunteering within his community in addition to his private real estate investing. Chris and Karen are blessed with two daughters, Liz and Annie, who attended Camp Runoia, Birch Rock’s sister camp.
For all the successes he has achieved, Chris credits Birch Rock with providing a strong foundation based on education, character development, and lifelong friendships. Of course, it all began when his parents dropped him off on that summer day in 1967. When asked about the lasting impacts Birch Rock had on him he responds, “It will change your life and be with you your whole life. The things you learn there, whether deliberately or through osmosis, will set you apart from others in a better way.”
And, of course, he still uses gold Dial soap.
