Barbara Brewer

Pilot, aerial photographer, member of the Ninety-Nines

BREWSTER – Barbara (Clement) Brewer, 90, died December 29, 2012 peacefully at home in Brewster. She was the wife of the late Herbert Van Sant (“Van”) Brewer.

Mrs. Brewer was born in Bangor, Maine. She graduated Bangor High School, Northfield Mount Herman School, and Smith College in Massachusetts.

She became an avid golfer and skiier while in high school, later sharing her enjoyment of these with family. Inspired by her father’s love of flying, she joined the flying club while at Smith. Following graduation and while living in Boston’s Back Bay, she taught at and then directed the Lower School at Rivers Country Day School.

She raised her family in Wayland, Massachusetts, pursuing photography, silk-screen printing and substitute teaching as time allowed. She spent summers with her family in Brewster and moved to Brewster permanently in 1980, enjoying sailing with her husband around Cape Cod and the Islands.

Mrs. Brewer earned her pilot’s license at 55 and started an aerial photography business, Felicity Aerials. She was a member of the Ninety-Nines, an international organization of women pilots, and became well known on the Cape for her aerial photography including artistic aerials taken from her two-seater Cessna. She enjoyed golfing and sailing; volunteering her services for aerial surveys of seal migration, tern-colony counts, and wetland preservation; and loved taking family and friends flying with her.

Survivors include her sister, Pauline (Clement) Barron of Hampden, Maine; a son, Philip V. S. Brewer, daughter-in-law Patricia (Nichols) Brewer and two grandchildren, Abigail and Caleb, of Concord, Massachusetts; and a daughter, Judith A. Brewer of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00pm on Thursday January 3, 2012 at the Nickerson Funeral Home, 77 Eldredge Park Way, Orleans, MA.

Memorial donations may be made to the Arthritis Foundation.