Deceased February 3, 2008

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In Memory

The news regarding the passing of Charlie Mastin on February 3, 2008, is sad despite reviving some pleasant memories of long, long ago. It happened that Charlie and your Class secretary matriculated at Amherst together during the summer of 1942 with a rather large delegation from the St. Louis, MO, area. Yours truly was a total stranger to everyone in the group because after my family moved to St. Louis in 1940, I remained in Tennessee to complete my studies at The Webb School. Charlie was a very friendly person, which I appreciated, because he made a special effort to welcome a “rebel” who was rather enamored with the land of magnolias and southern belles to a new environment. “Being kind from dawn to dark” is the most apt description I can imagine for defining classmate Mastin.

Born in St. Louis on November 14, 1924, Charles was the son of Dr. Edward and Eleanor Chase Mastin and great grandson of the Right Rev. Charles Franklin Robertson, who was the third Episcopal Bishop of Missouri. He was educated at the Taylor School in St. Louis and, of course, at the “Fairest College of Them All.”  His Amherst sojourn was interrupted in 1943 when he joined the army as a surgical-medical technician mostly with the 196th General Hospital in France. After discharge in 1946, he married Georgann Logsdon of Carmi, IL.

He worked for the General Shoe Company in Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, MO, prior to moving to Wilmington, DE, to work for Ralston-Purina Company. In 1958, he received a degree in history from the Univ. of Delaware.  He next spent three years at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria where he received a master of divinity degree in 1961 and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1962. His first position was at Calvary Hillcrest Church in Wilmington; then he served as rector to Church of the Good Shepard in Scranton, PA in 1963; and in 1968, he was called as rector to Christ Church in Easton, MD.

It was at Christ Church where Father Mastin, as a spiritual leader, was very involved in the community. A quiet but intellectually vibrant man, Father Mastin loved people. He loved parish life and was known for his pastoral care, his extraordinary commitment to his ministry, and for initiating a healing ministry. He was the chairman of the Standing Committee for the Diocese of Easton from 1975 to 1984.

In 1986 Father Mastin moved to Richmond, VA. He and Georgann spent the early years of their retirement studying and traveling the world.  During this educational odyssey, he made three trips to St. George’s College in Jerusalem where he initiated a building fund for several renovations to the college. In Virginia, Father Mastin was licensed as a supply priest and served several churches. The Mastins next moved to Burlington, NC, where they lived for four years. In the late 1990s, the Mastins moved to Salisbury, where he continued his supply ministry at the historic St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church in Quantico for two years. He was a long time member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution.

Father Mastin is survived by his wife of sixty-two years along with four daughters and one son. Another son died in infancy.

J. Wells Steinwart ’46