Charles Campbell Taylor '54
Once again, it is my task to record the passing of another classmate and member of the Phi Gam delegation. Charles Taylor died October 17, 2006, at Transylvania Community Hospital (Brevard, NC) after a lengthy illness. He was a victim of progressive emphysema which included a ten year home oxygen dependency.
Chuck Taylor was seventy-four at the time of his death and had resided in Brevard, NC, for the past twenty-eight years. He had been employed by the film division of Olin there for five years and then served them thereafter as a consultant. Chuck was an active Republican, a member of the local board of directors of First Citizen’s Bank, a Rotarian and an Elk. He sat on the city and county planning boards of Brevard and of Transylvania County and was a member of Brevard Davidson River Presbyterian Church, where his funeral was held.
He was the son of Merrill Whiting Taylor and Mary Elizabeth Campbell Taylor of Kalamazoo, MI. He prepared for college at St. George’s.
Chuck was with us through the middle of our junior year when he was asked to leave for the second semester because he had not fulfilled any of the mandatory physical education requirements. (How do our more recent graduates feel about that? Chuck had a bad knee and all he was allowed to participate in was bodybuilding, which he found boring, so he never attended those sessions!) He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where his father used some contacts to have him accepted as a second semester junior. When told that he could return to Amherst in September 1953, Chuck declined because he was happy in Texas. He received his undergraduate degree from UT in 1954. After graduation, Chuck returned to Kalamazoo and was employed in sales of food wraps, then spent three and one-half years in San Antonio followed by a stint in Philadelphia with FMC’s Avisco Division marketing cellophane—(remember cellophane?) before the move to NC.
While still at Amherst, Chuck had begun dating Elizabeth Anne Jaqua (Smith ’53)whom he met in a musical (directed by Bob Rotner) for which Chuck was the stage manager. Their relationship survived his departure, and they were married in December 1953. Estranged from Amherst for many years, Chuck was approached by Bill Wilcox to contribute to our 40th Reunion alumni drive. He said that he would do so if our late classmate Wink Smyth (who did not participate in Commencement and received his diploma after the summer of 1954, also because of a phys ed issue) would do so. Wink did, and Chuck did, too. He remained a faithful contributor annually for the remainder of his life.
In addition to Anne, Chuck is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth T. Canady and her husband, Larry of Brevard; four sons, Charles C. Taylor, Jr. ,and his wife Jan of Audubon, PA, Stephen J. Taylor of Austin, TX, Gregory Scott Taylor and his wife Joan of Hillsborough, NC, and David M. Taylor and his wife Caroline of Chapel Hill, NC; two stepbrothers, David Cardner and his wife Linn of Orange, TX, and Richard Cardner and his wife Julie, also of Texas; and six grandchildren, Andrew, Caitlyn, Shelby Anne, Michael, Alexander and Blaine Taylor.
—Henry Tulgan ’54