Carolyn “Carrie” Flood, age 74, much admired in the area as a non-profit operations management professional and civic leader, passed away at Emerson Hospital on August 31, 2024. The cause was cancer, which had advanced rapidly following a devastating diagnosis earlier this summer.
Carrie was a quintessential servant of the people, giving her all to enhance the municipal, educational and cultural exceptionalism of Concord and the surrounding region. She was, in fact, “a Concordian through and through,” the roots of which can be seen in her heritage.
Direct-line ancestors included early Plymouth settlers and American Revolution and Civil War soldiers. In the late 1800s, her paternal great grandfather, Myrick L. Hatch, established a dry goods store in Concord Center that still exists today. Her maternal great grandfather, William Chaplin, Jr., was an officer at the Massachusetts Reformatory on Commonwealth Avenue. Carolyn’s great uncle, Wallace Conant, was a prominent citizen, founder and owner of the West Concord-based Conant Machine and Steel Company, which operated between 1915 and 1960.
Her parents were town stalwarts as well, most notably for their leadership in the Concord Players and the social responsibility/civil rights movement in the 60s. Carrie resided for the better part of her life at the family-owned property located between Main and Central Streets in West Concord, a few doors from where the factory used to be. It has been home to five successive generations thus far. This background was very important to Carrie.
She was born in Palo Alto, California, the first child of Richard Myrick Hatch, Jr. and Mary Jaquelin Noyes Hatch, who had recently relocated from Boston to the Bay Area. Shortly after the birth of a sister two years later, the family drove back east, moving into the Main Street house. Like much of West Concord in that era, the buildings and grounds were run down. Throughout childhood, Carolyn was witness to her parents’ do-it-yourself renovation projects, and she would later repeat those efforts herself as the neighborhood continued to gentrify. She had clearly inherited the dominant gene for Yankee practicality that would be expressed throughout her lifetime.
Carolyn attended Concord Public Schools and went to summer camp at Nashoba Day Camp followed by many successive seasons at Camp Billings in Fairlee, Vermont.
After completing one semester at Beloit College in Wisconsin, Carrie felt disaffected in the Midwest and insisted on coming home to the Boston area, where she continued undergraduate studies at Boston University and UMass Boston. She met and married William “Billy” Flood at age 21. After seven years, they welcomed a child, Malyssa Ann (“Lyssa”). Though they separated and later divorced, they remained good friends and admirable co-parents until Billy’s untimely passing in 1990. Carrie never remarried and raised Lyssa largely as a single parent.
Carrie’s career path progressed in three main chapters. She was employed by Nuclear Metals Inc. (later renamed Starmet Inc.) in Concord for about 20 years, starting as a third-shift machine operator and working her way up to production control manager. During her time there, Carrie also served on the Safety Brigade and Employee Relations Committee.
In 2001, Carrie left Starmet to enthusiastically set her sights on the non-profit sector. In 2003, she joined the Emerson Umbrella Community Arts Center as the managing director. There, she excelled at interacting with and supporting local artists; producing award-winning plays, musicals, and exhibitions; expanding arts education programming; laying plans for major building renovations; and raising development funds.
Carrie’s work at the Umbrella was all-consuming, so after a decade, she sought a change. In 2014, she was thrilled to join Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary and rose to become regional operations manager for Mass Audubon West. Drumlin was her favorite workplace ever. Indicative of her signature deep commitment to the organization, she was still performing her duties this summer when worsening illness interfered and cut short her plan to retire on her 75th birthday next spring.
Carrie always sought to balance her primary job with community engagement. Since 1989, she has been in continuous service to the town: Concord Finance Committee; Select Board; Select Board Liaison to the Landfill Taskforce; Select Board Liaison to Waste Management Advisory Committee; Middlesex County Advisory Board; Board of Assessors; Harvey Wheeler Building Committee; Housing Trust Board of Directors; and Concord Housing Foundation Advisory Board, and more.
Carrie was the town’s representative on the board of the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical School District for eight years. Even more impressive, she held the post of deputy town moderator for a remarkable 23 years, evidence of how much her facilitation talents were valued. Carrie was also part of the official delegation visiting Nanae, Japan, for the official Sister City signing ceremony.
Not a year passed that Carrie wasn’t also dedicating time to one or more task forces, subcommittees, and/or special events such as the West Concord Family Festival, which she coordinated for three years running. She was particularly honored to have been part of a delegation that traveled to Japan in 1997 for a signing ceremony with Concord’s official sister city, Nanae.
Yet another way in which Carrie served her greater community was as a member of the board of directors for Middlesex Bank. That institution — where she had had her first savings account as a schoolgirl — benefitted from her financial and business acumen, coupled with her unique understanding of the region’s pulse.
All this she accomplished while not only seeing to her daughter’s education and also welcoming in several foster children over a period, but also helping bring up her two grandchildren, Joshua and Maya Simard. Carrie was a uniquely devoted, patient, and influential “Nana.” A very strong bond emerged. Joshua and Maya will carry the lesson of her love wherever life takes them.
Anyone who worked alongside Carrie in any of her varied capacities will remember her keen intelligence, common sense, willingness to innovate, and good-old-fashioned work ethic. All told, one can safely say Carrie was at once a steady rock and a rock star within her beloved local realm. In her unassuming manner, she found purpose and made a difference.
In addition to Malyssa, Joshua, and Maya of Concord, Carolyn leaves behind her sister, Rebecca Hatch Meyers; brother Myrick Chaplin Hatch (Claudia); sister-in-law Rhonda Ruggiero Hatch; and a host of nieces, nephews, and cousins with whom she enjoyed many family reunions and holidays. She was preceded in death by her parents, Mary Jaquelin and Richard, ex-husband Billy, brother Jonathan N. Hatch, and brother-in-law Roger L. Meyers.
Family, friends, and colleagues are welcome to gather for visiting hours at Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford Street, Concord Center, on Saturday, September 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. A Celebration of Life will take place at a later date.
To honor Carolyn, in lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of the following or a charity of your choice: Camp Billings or Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm.
Arrangements are entrusted to Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. To share a remembrance or to offer a condolence in her online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.
