Charles Yardley Chittick

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- A retired patent lawyer who turned down a job offer from Thomas Edison and feuded with Humphrey Bogart as a teenager has died at age 107.

Charles Yardley Chittick died Friday, a week and a half after injuring himself in a fall at his retirement home.

Last month, Chittick, in a golf cart, led the reunion procession at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., where he and Bogart clashed. He was the only surviving member of the class of 1918.

"He used to kiddingly say he didn't become famous until he reached 100," daughter-in-law Elizabeth Chittick said Monday.

Chittick lived alone at Pleasant View Retirement Community and used a walker to get around, including to the dining room where he fell while rising from a table, injuring his spine, his lawyer and friend, John Ransmeier, said.

"He was always willing to talk about the past and always willing to share his stories," said his friend and chauffeur Jennifer "Jiffi" Rainie of Concord. "He had a lot of stories. He remembered everything."

After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the young engineer chose a job with a golf club manufacturer because it sounded like more fun than working for Edison. The job piqued his interest in the law, which became his career.

As students at Phillips Academy, Chittick and Bogart lived across a hall from each other, but didn't get along, according a book about the movie star's early years. They once got into a scuffle after Chittick refused to polish Bogart's shoes, the book said.

Chittick was honored at the Andover graduation, with a resolution pardoning him for hijinks as a student nine decades ago. The resolution cited a diary entry he wrote in 1918 about sneaking off campus one night with Bogart and others to watch a fire in a nearby town.

"He always had that sparkle in his eye and that nice little chuckle," Rainie said. "Even two days before he died, he was chuckling."

Chittick also was known for his love of golf and his sense of style. In the 11 years Rainie knew him, Chittick always dressed in a suit and bow tie.

"His eyesight was not very good, but he could see that someone wasn't dressed very sharply," Rainie said. "He'd say 'Why doesn't that person dress better?'"

Chittick had two sons by his first wife, Dorothy. He moved to Pleasant View from Wakefield, N.H., after his second wife, Ruth, died in 1997.

He is survived by his son Charles Jr., 86, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Son John died in 1992.

"He lived a very, very full life and he was ready to be on his way," said his nursing assistant, Betty Jones. "But he will be missed, that is sure."




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