Charles Rosenbury Erdman 3rd died peacefully surrounded by members of his family on July 20 at his residence at Eskaton Retirement Community in Sacramento, Calif. He was 94.

Charlie was born on Sept. 7, 1923 in Princeton, N.J. where his father was a professor at Princeton University and mayor of the same town. He attended the university and graduated in 1946 after an interlude serving in Wrold War II where he saw combat in General Bradley’s 9th Army in France, Holland and Germany.

The family maintained a summer residence in Edgartown where Charlie met and married Joyce Ann West in 1949, who was born and raised there. They started their family and moved to East Dorset, Vt. where they built and ran a motel for many years in the southern Green Mountains. There Charlie imbued his passion for skiing and the idyllic country life he loved to his whole family. Upon retirement, he and Joyce moved to Stowe, Vt. and began spending winters in Lake Tahoe, Calif. and summers in Edgartown, and enjoyed many extended visits at both places with their children and grandchildren. In his later years Charlie became part of the Eskaton retirement community, making many new friends.

Family was always the center of Charlie’s life as was a good party and he maintained a large circle of friends throughout his long life. His good humor, generosity, boundless energy and can-do attitude affected everyone around him and brought out the best in people. But above all his love of his family will always be remembered by those who knew him.

He was predeceased by his wife of 65 years, Joyce West Erdman, and his brother Harold. He is survived by his five children: Cully, Dick, Lucy, Sarah Lowis and Calvin Erdman; and his brothers Peter, David and Michael.