RIP Chuck Morey

The worst thing about getting old is that more people you know get old and die. Chuck and I weren't friends exactly, but we were connected in many ways. The biggest one being that we moved into the cottage on his brother's farm after he was kicked out of it. Actually it was more of a drafty shack when we got it and it was loaded with junk. Chuck was the attendant at the landfill up the road from the place and became a hoarder of sorts, collecting cast off items that might be useful someday. It took a long time to empty the place after he left.

Nonetheless, Chuck was a smart man and fabulous artist. Oddly, in all the years that I knew him, I never knew that he had started out as an accomplished professional. I was surprised to see this in the obit:

Chuck was a painter who had works displayed in various galleries over the years. He received his bachelor's degree from Williams College and his master's degree from the University of Georgia in Athens. He was a retired professor of fine art, having held positions at Dartmouth College and the University of Toronto, as well as Amherst College and Berkshire Community College.

By the time I knew him, he was living in a broken down trailer, enlarged with haphazard additions built of whatever scrap he happened to find. He wasn't painting much. He apparently died pretty much broke. Still he was a good man. A gentle soul with a generous spirit. Rest in peace.