Charles Wadsworth

WADSWORTH, Charles Noel

Charles "Noel" Wadsworth, 87, passed away on Tuesday, August 15, 2023 of natural causes at his home in Charleston, SC.

Noel was born on December 13, 1935, in Prattville, Alabama to Margaret Rose McCrary (a direct descendant of one of America's founding fathers, Lyman Hall) and to Charles Daniel Wadsworth (a descendant of the famed American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). Noel spent his youth alongside his beloved sister, Meredith Wadsworth Sharpe, and graduated from Prattville High, where he could often be found practicing on the football field with his uncle, "Tank Wadsworth."

In 1955, Noel enrolled in Polytechnic Institute, where he met, fell in love with, and married Kathryn "Kathy" Dickinson. Noel's college studies were interrupted by a two-year Army tour, where he served as a cryptographer in the Korean War and also placed as a halfback on the 8th Army football team. He would return to marry Kathy in 1958 and complete his degree in Industrial Art. The Wadsworths joined the first graduating class of Auburn University in 1960. That year, they moved to Dalton, Georgia with their first-born daughter, Margaret Dana Wadsworth and in 1961, their second daughter, Jennifer Kathryn Wadsworth was born.

With his keen eye for design and savvy entrepreneurial spirit, Noel would partner with Martin Greenwood to form the Wadsworth-Greenwood Corp. and Multitex Corp., where the two dynamos would exercise great influence in the city that would soon become known as the epicenter of the American Carpet Industry. Wadsworth-Greenwood earned two patents for the invention of novel textile apparatuses that would revolutionize the knitting and dying process.

In the mid-1970s, Noel divested from the textile industry after relocating his family to Atlanta, and pivoted his passions to investments and fine art. In the next iteration of his career, he served as a Principal at Oppenheimer and Company, Inc., which later became SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. In 2008, he permanently retired from his position as Senior Vice-President of SunTrust Investment Services.

Noel was known as a "Renaissance Man" who lived life to the fullest and on his own terms. Whether he was racing his silver Boxster Porsche, crewing a regatta, giving a lecture on the Impressionist movement, or serving as a sommelier while entertaining you in his home, Noel would captivate and engage your imagination and always leave you wanting more. Voted Atlanta's best-dressed man many times over, Noel was also an avid tennis player, an accomplished sailor, and a devoted husband and father.

Kathy and Noel's long love affair spanned 64 years and their dedication to one another and their alma mater is evident in their shared vision and philanthropy as members of the original founders of the Auburn Fine Arts Museum and the gallery that bears their name today- The Noel and Kathryn Dickinson Wadsworth Collection. Together, the couple traveled to New York, New Orleans, London and Paris, where they collected mostly French and American art from the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as Colonial and Art Noveau. The Wadsworth collection was featured in Time Magazine in the early 1980s. Noel and his wife also served as founding members of the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, Georgia and the Art Forum in Atlanta.

Noel leaves behind a storied legacy to his family and friends. He is survived by and will be dearly missed by his daughters, Jennifer Wadsworth and Margaret Dana Wadsworth, M.D.; and his two grandsons, Noel Gabriel Mills and Forrest Addison Mills. Celebration of Life event to be held later this year.