Meet Barbara Cary, Our Newest Trustee

Our newest Trustee Barbara Cary joins a very special group of daughters, who have followed in their fathers’ footsteps on the Board of Trustees. Now that she has retired to Wellfleet full time, she has volunteered her considerable talents to the Wellfleet Conservation Trust.  This profile of Barbara originated on a cold April morning along Route 6 where she was picking up trash with the WCT Adopt-A-Highway crew.  Highway background noise is not very conducive to conversation, so we switched format and posed a series of questions that Barbara answered in her own words.

Your introduction to Wellfleet?

I grew up in Belmont, MA, and lived in Concord MA for thirty years or so until retirement and the move to Wellfleet. I came to Wellfleet as an eight-year-old in 1958!  I think it was then I decided I wanted to live here.  I was one lucky kid when my parents, Herb and Irene Daitch, bought the house at the corner of Main and Commercial in 1961, and I was able to spend more and more time here, riding my bike everywhere, exploring the now long-gone oyster shacks at the railroad bridge over Duck Creek, later in cars with cousins and friends, and generally a boat hanging off the roof or out the back.  Ten-hour days on the beaches and in the ponds, sunset cookouts and bonfires at Duck Harbor.  My first real job, waitressing at Holiday House in 1969.  The house in town was sold when my parents bought my current home, on Chequessett Neck Road, with the overwhelming views of the harbor and Great Island.  My daughter, Jocelyn, first visited at four months old, and loves Wellfleet as I do.  I finally moved to Wellfleet, as a full-time resident, in December, 2015.  What a joy it was, last year, not to need to drive away after Labor Day!

Favorite Wellfleet things to do?

Duck Harbor, all day, through to sunset.  (Still!) Swim the ponds. Watch and listen to the ocean.  Walk the trails.

Professional Career?

BA American University in Washington, DC 1972, Majored in Communication and Political Science. JD Suffolk Law Boston, MA 1977.  For the most part I was corporate, in-house counsel at several high-tech companies in the Boston area, including Digital Equipment Corporation and Sybase, Inc.  I handled product-related, as well as employment litigation, software licensing and distribution.   While I enjoyed the work, the best part of my career was the teamwork and my colleagues, and the travel (domestic and international).  But I often feel I missed my calling, in that I’ve always been enthralled by the natural world, (without a doubt inspired by Wellfleet!).  My favorite course in college was Earth Science, and my initial interest was in Environmental Law.  (Go figure!)  I am passionate about habitat and wildlife conservation, and the climate change crisis. So I am very excited to be able to work with the Wellfleet Conservation Trust to preserve the land and habitat to the greatest extent possible, for the sake of future generations, and the planet itself.

Your other current organizations and activities?

Since landing in Wellfleet, I have been a member of the Charter Review Committee, the Board of the Historical Society, and the Outer Cape Chorale.  Also the Wellfleet Democrats, and I am looking forward to becoming more involved in climate change initiatives.

Anything that people wouldn’t know about you?

Something people don’t know about me?  I wish I were mysterious, but I have no secrets!  Well, most people would probably be surprised to learn that I was a high school and college athlete – field hockey and swimming, respectively.

A few words about your father?

My father, Herb Daitch, was a Trustee for many years prior to his death in 2011 – and I am particularly honored to be able to follow in his footsteps.   He loved the work, maintaining and inspecting the land, and working the swath along Route 6.  He loved Wellfleet – as his “table” at the marina says: “Enjoy!”