PLYMOUTH Charles Perry Butterfield died peacefully at his home with his family gathered a few minutes after midnight on Friday February 18, 2012. Charles was born on May 19, 1923, in Providence, Rhode Island, the eldest of five children - four boys and one girl - four of whom survived to adulthood. His parents were Mary Goodwin Butterfield and Charles E. Butterfield, a worsted wool designer who managed mills for the American Woolen Company, including Puritan Mills of Plymouth.
The family moved to 3 Obery Street, Plymouth, for Charlie's third grade at the Wellingsley School, which stood adjacent to the Jabez Corner store at Sandwich Street and Sandwich Road. He then attended Mount Pleasant School and Plymouth High School, from which he graduated in 1941. As a youth he sailed a 14-foot Winabout sloop from a mooring at the bottom of Howe's Lane.
After attending Chauncey Hall, Cambridge, 1941-42, he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After six months in ROTC he enlisted in the Army Air Corps Reserve and served on active duty for three years until 1945, including a deployment to Tinian Island just south of Saipan where B-29’s were dispatched.
In the summer of 1945 Charles met Virginia Lee Hatch of Hingham at the Plymouth Yacht Club, thus beginning their shared passion for boats. They were married on December 23 at the Church of the Advent, Boston. The couple lived on Park Drive, Boston, and in MIT housing until Charles' graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 1949.
Charles and Lee had five children between 1947 and 1957. After living on Elm Street in Kingston in 1949, the family made their home on Jordan Road near the Four Corners in Chiltonville from 1950 to 1981. The family was long active in the Plymouth Yacht Club where Charles served as commodore,1967, and the Eel River Beach Club. He also served as President of the Board of Governors of the Jordan Hospital in the 1960’s. They were involved in the Church of the Pilgrimage in early years and in later years associated with Chiltonville Congregational Church.
Charles began his mechanical engineering career at the Plymouth Cordage Company, where he was quality control chief, 1949-54. He then became chief engineer at the George R. Churchill Company of Hingham, which manufactured buffing materials for automobiles and flatware. Designing many of the machines used in the manufacturing process, he eventually became president of the company. He and Lee lived in Hickory, North Carolina, for three years, 1981-84, as Charles managed transitions after the Jackson Company bought Churchill and moved operations south.
The Butterfields moved to Maine for retirement in 1984, living in Belfast for six years, followed by nine years in Center Harbor, and continuing to sail Penobscot Bay and the Maine coast. Health issues prompted a return to Plymouth in 1999, and they established their home on Obery Street in the Wellingsley neighborhood, just doors away from where Charles spent his childhood and youth. Lee died at home on January 26, 2012.
Charles was dedicated to his family and enjoyed his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He retained a lifelong interest in all things mechanical, automotive and nautical. He enjoyed reading history and biographies as long as he retained his eyesight. He loved the various dogs he and Lee had over the years, and those of their children as well.
He is survived by his two daughters Sarah Crosby and husband William Evans of Maine; Jane and her husband Titus Presler of Vermont; three sons, Charles “Sandy” and wife Anne of Colorado; Samuel and wife Linda, and Joe and wife Paula, both of Plymouth; ten grandchildren, five great grandchildren; a brother, Gordon Butterfield of North Carolina and a sister, Diane Brosnan of Plymouth.
A Memorial Service will be held at 2:00 PM, Sunday March 11, 2012
at the Childtonville Congregational Church at 6 River Street in Plymouth.
In lieu of flowers, the family invites donations to any of the following:
Dana Farber Cancer Institute (www.dana-fraber.org)
Cranberry Hospice (30 Cordage Park Circle, Suite 326, Plymouth MA 02360
Chiltonville Congregational Church, 6 River Street, Plymouth MA 02360