After a long series of illnesses, Brian Robert Cavanaugh died on May 30, 2022 at his home in Wellfleet. His death, caused by acute respiratory failure, was confirmed by his wife, Sandra Cavanaugh. He was 78.
The son of Robert and Jacqueline Cavanaugh of Tariffville, Conn., Brian was born on Feb. 15, 1944. In 1962, he graduated from Henry James High School in Simsbury, Conn., where he was a debater and served on the student council and his class executive board. He proudly served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1966 to 1970.
Sandra tells the story of how, upon Brian’s discharge, a Coast Guard friend, Cliff Dalby, joked, “If you are going to be unemployed, why don’t you do it on the Cape?” Dalby then added, “I think I can find you work.” So, in 1970, Brian relocated to Wellfleet, where he indeed found work and had a long career as a carpenter on construction projects.
Brian’s friends and coworkers respected him as a “doer of all things.” He was an avid reader with an enduring curiosity about how things functioned and how they were built. Combining his work ethic and his curiosity, he acquired great knowledge. He was especially skilled at solving knotty problems on remodeling projects; he would accomplish the goal in spite of the difficult cutting angle or the challenges presented by the materials called for.
After years of demonstrating these skills — for more than two decades, he worked for Art Hultin Construction in Truro — Brian was inducted by his colleagues into the informal “elite league of master carpenters.”
Brian was always ready to offer a helping hand, often with a twinkle in his eye. His friend Ted Thomas recalled how the friends of the Wellfleet Recreation Dept. asked for Brian’s help to create a haunted house for Halloween on Mayo Beach. Brian engineered it so that the floor in one area dropped an inch as the visitor entered, producing the desired screams of surprise.
A proud Irishman, Brian was a storyteller in the tradition of the great Celtic shanachies, never shy in his opinions, but never cruel in his honesty. “He loved to talk,” said Sandra, “and he would turn the most ordinary of daily experiences into stories.”
In the winter of 2009, suffering from a bout of cabin fever in St. Albans in the northwest corner of Vermont, Sandra McGowan tried online dating, with disastrous results. Determined to cancel her subscription to the service, she took one last look at her messages and found a “flirt” with a funny message from Brian.
She responded, and they clicked in their mutual Irishness, exchanging emails and video calls on Skype, followed by two years of visits between Wellfleet and St. Albans. In 2011, Sandra moved in with Brian in Wellfleet, and they happily married in 2014.
Brian was a proud member of a 12-step recovery group that he credited with saving his life.
He is survived by his wife, Sandra McGowan Cavanaugh, of Wellfleet; his son Shaye and wife Christina of Kaua’i, Hawaii; his stepson Zach Dixon and wife Lissette of Wellfleet; his brother, Craig, of Simsbury, Conn.; his sisters, Sherry Drude of Charlestown, R.I. and Lorey Cavanaugh of Unionville, Conn.; and by three grandsons, six nieces and nephews, and 16 great-nieces and nephews.
Brian’s son Jonah Thane Cavanaugh predeceased him on Aug. 29, 2019.
The family will celebrate Brian’s life privately. They thank everyone who was a part of his life and work, and they hope all will remember Brian as a fun and loving man.
