Charles Fitzgerald Sheridan Jr.

- Charlie Sheridan loved to probe the edges of opinion. Tell him you're from Wall, South Dakota, and he would ask what a person from America's Badlands thinks about drought in Africa. A cousin just learning biochemistry was asked about the impact of the latest findings in that field. Golf partners were queried about their religious convictions, and fellow travelers on a barge through France were harried to explore farther afield when the barge tied up.

The point was to enlarge your thinking. He didn't care where you ended up, as long as you reached out and thought about it.

Charlie was born in Syracuse, NY, the third child of Charles F. Sheridan and Millicent McElvare Sheridan. He and his sisters grew up with Syracuse University as their personal playground, swinging from vines in the "elephant tree" and making odd change parking cars for football games. Their father, a lawyer, made up songs about their relatives and once, when he'd caught them jumping off the garage roof for fun, sent them to their room where he silently "measured us for our coffins."

Charlie learned early that education was all-important, and girls mattered as much as boys. His mother and sisters all earned graduate degrees, and Charlie followed his father to Amherst College. Entering college at age 16 in 1944, Charlie's cohort included much older war-weary men. His fraternity speech, "A Lament for the Death of the Eager Beaver," likely fell on some deaf ears. But Charlie was pushing boundaries already, working hard though unsuccessfully to get Alpha Delta Phi to accept its first black member.

Charlie met Ellen Sisson at a Wellesley College dance while he was in law school and together they pushed past convention to a "mixed" Protestant-Catholic union in 1953. Though expressed very differently, they shared a drive to help make the world a better place through their own efforts. Their child-rearing style emphasized broad thinking and creative solutions. Together they explored politics, supported causes, and traveled (mostly by bicycle) to far-off lands.

Charlie graduated from Harvard Law School in 1951 and joined Edwards & Angell in Providence, RI, leaving after five years to support his father's Syracuse practice during his father's illness. He became General Counsel for Avis Rent-a-Car in Boston but declined to move with them to New York City and joined Sulloway & Hollis in Concord, NH, as a partner in 1962. He was a Sulloway partner through 2005 and continued as senior counsel for several more years.

A true general practitioner, Charlie divided his law practice among business law, bankruptcy, banking matters, health insurance, and trust and estate planning. He served as Chairperson of the Taxation and the Corporate Sections of the New Hampshire Bar Association and as a member of its Continuing Legal Education Committee. He was a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council. In addition to the NHBA, where he became a 50 year member, he was a member of the bars of Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island.

Charlie believed strongly that those who had done well in life should "give back," and he was a lifelong committed volunteer, serving on boards and providing legal advice to a wide range of Concord's non-profit organizations, including the YMCA, the United Way, Bancroft Industries, the Chamber of Commerce, and the NH Historical Society.

Charlie loved music. He played trombone as a child, earning a place in the Syracuse University marching band while still in high school. In Concord he enjoyed many happy years with the Freese Brothers Band, and he was happy to be serenaded by the "Sounds of Sulloway" law firm band in his last week of life.

Charlie was predeceased by his son Matthew in 1968 and his wife Ellen in 2017. He leaves behind his children Amy, Timothy, and Cornelia (Cosy), his granddaughter Emma Halter, former proteges and colleagues, many fond and amused and wonderfully caring staff members at Havenwood, and everyone whose life was a little larger because Charlie asked them a question.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, January 2, at 2:00 pm in the Main Lodge of Havenwood Heritage Heights, 33 Christian Avenue, Concord, NH. Arrangements by Bennett Funeral Home of Concord.