Charles McCullough Weis

Charles McCullough Weis, a professor of English at Ohio Wesleyan who lived in Delaware for almost 60 years, died peacefully on November 30, 2023, in Santa Barbara, California at the age of 101. He lived a remarkably complete and rich life to the very end, displaying a fierce determination to live life to the fullest.

Charles was born in Rochester, New York on July 26th, 1922, the son of Charles William Weis Jr. and Jessica McCullough Weis. He attended Allendale School in Rochester and graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut in 1940. After two years at Yale University, he joined the war effort, enlisting in the US Army where he rose to the rank of sergeant. He served as a cryptographer and was stationed in Canada and Alaska, sometimes in remote locations living and working in Quonset huts. According to his discharge certificate, he "enciphered and deciphered or encoded and decoded classified messages, using all types of cryptographic systems and equipment."

After his discharge in 1945, Charles returned to Yale and graduated with the class of 1945. He remained at Yale for his graduate education, receiving a master's and PhD in English Literature. He then taught English for four years at the University of Virginia. In Charlottesville, he met Elizabeth J. Munce, and they married in 1958.

He subsequently accepted a faculty position at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where he taught English and Film for 28 years, retiring in 1986. He split his retirement between Delaware, Ohio and Vero Beach, Florida, before moving to Santa Barbara in 2016, where he had seven happy years at Casa Dorinda. Elizabeth, his wife of 31 years, died in 1989.

Charles traveled extensively, especially to western Europe and the United Kingdom, for a time owning a flat in London. With a generosity of spirit and quick wit throughout his life, he enjoyed a wide circle of friends. He was passionate about classical music, especially opera, and was a supporter of the Metropolitan Opera and the Music Academy of the West. He was a fiercely competitive tennis and duplicate bridge player, and his final competitive love was bocce, which he played avidly at Casa Dorinda.

Charles and Elizabeth raised two children, Karl J. Weis of Santa Barbara, California, and Virginia M. Weis of Corvallis, Oregon. Charles is also survived by six grandchildren and four nieces and nephews.