Dr. Arthur P. Carriere

“Hi Doctor Carriere, my name is Angela, I’m one of your doctors. I hear you were an Orthopedic Surgeon, and that you trained here at Boston Medical Center?”

“It was called the Boston City, then.”

“Of course. What was your specialty?”

“Oh, I did it all…. We had a lot of fun.” 

Dr. Arthur P. Carriere passed away Wednesday, September 17th in West Bridgewater, MA. He was 88. 

Born in Boston to Mafalda and Alphonse Carriere, Dr. Carriere grew up in Jamaica Plain, skating on ponds, with Franklin Park as his back yard. He was one of only two boys from his neighborhood admitted to the Boston Latin School where he began to discover his capacity for hard work. At fourteen, he rode the streetcar to City Hall to acquire a social security card so that he could get his first job printing flyers at Alpert’s Furniture where his father was a salesman. Throughout high school he was a garbage man, a soda jerk, a boat driver, a landscaper. He passed up attending Harvard in favor of Boston University, where he was offered a full hockey scholarship. It was during his summers then that he worked for Marshfield Sand and Gravel, earning money to put himself through medical school, and met the love of his life, Ann Giberti, who would become his wife of fifty two years. During their early years of marriage, he trained at Boston Medical Center, Tufts University Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Veterans’ Hospital in West Roxbury. He was drafted by the Army in the summer of 1962 to Fort Hood, TX, where he served for three years and discovered his love of Orthopedics. He and his young family returned to New England where he continued his training, eventually settling in West Bridgewater, where he lived for fifty five years in the rambling, old, farmhouse Ann had found. He spent most of his free time over the decades, painting, repairing, and loving the home they filled with their nine children. At the height of his career he was the Chief of Orthopedics at both the former Cardinal Cushing and Goddard Hospitals. As one of the first local surgeons with his level of expertise, he was sought after for his skill at joint replacement, and would take any opportunity to talk about his favorite procedure, the lumbar laminectomy. His children can still seldom escape strangers’ inquiries whose aunts’ hips were fixed by Dr. Carriere: ‘Yes, that’s my dad.’ And until just recently, he could be seen riding his lawn mower around the yard, raking leaves, repairing something around the house, or hosting his  Monday Spaghetti night. A quiet man, with a twinkle in his eye from beneath a formidable brow, he did, indeed, do it all; and ‘we had a lot of fun.’

Dr. Carriere is predeceased by his wife, Ann, and his brother, Joe Carriere. He is survived by his sister Frances and Charlie Lindgren of Cohasset, and his nine children, Paul and Teresa Carriere of West Bridgewater, Pamela and Walter Oliwa of Bedford, NH, Julie and Steve Martin of Marshfield, MA, James and Wendy Carriere of Atlanta, GA, Lisa and Christian Magel of Duxbury, MA, Thomas Carriere of Enfield, CT, Erin and Matthias Kretschmer of Silver Spring, MD, Michael and Danielle Carriere of Bridgewater, MA, Nicholas Carriere of West Bridgewater, MA, and his eighteen grandchildren.

All are welcome to calling hours Thursday September 25th from 4-8 p.m. in Waitt Funeral Home, 850 North Main St., Brockton, his funeral Friday September 26th at 10 a.m. from Waitt Funeral Home, funeral Mass at 11:30 a.m. in St. Ann Church, Rte. 28, West Bridgewater, and burial at Pine Hill Cemetery. Live streaming of Dr. Carriere's funeral Mass will be available. 

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