Charles D. Vernon ’66

Charles D. Vernon ’66, an educator and coach at Loomis Chaffee School for 40 years, died peacefully on October 18, 2024, in Hartford, Connecticut, from medical complications. Born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Chuck attended Williston Northampton School, where he was student council president and exceled in football, hockey, and lacrosse, serving as captain of the latter two. He was elected to the school’s athletic hall of fame in 2023. At Dartmouth Chuck was a member of Theta Delta Chi and Casque & Gauntlet, played football and hockey, and captained the lacrosse team, receiving All-Ivy recognition. He later served as class secretary, class agent, and an alumni interviewer. In 1968 Chuck married Jamie Sandra Gardner and started his career at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. He served in a myriad of roles, including as head of the community work program, which he started. During the next 40 years he also coached 135 teams. Chuck, Jamie, and children Jill and Andrew spent summers at the Jersey Shore, where he hosted gatherings for family and friends, body surfed at Bridge Avenue Beach, and made furniture in his shop, an avocation he continued in retirement. Chuck’s effervescent personality, punctuated by forceful insistence and a quick wit, brought people into his orbit, summoning them to action and enriching their lives. As lifelong friend Budge Gere ’66 said at Chuck’s memorial service: “Chuck was a force, a presence, a person with an irrepressible spirit. He filled a room and yet it was in a most self-effacing way.”