Charles Hyde "Trip" McCarthy III

This website is to celebrate the life of my sweet son, Charles Hyde McCarthy III. "Trip" was born at Lucille Packard Hospital in Stanford, CA on March 20, 1995 at 3:02am and passed away in the morning hours of October 6, 2015 at my home in Prescott, AZ. He will live forever in our memories and hearts.

Trip was only 6lbs 4ozs at birth, but grew quickly and was always 90+ percentile in height and under 50th in weight. At the time of his passing he was just over 6'2" and 175lbs. 

Trip loved music and ever-present headphones were connected to his iPod, then iPhone. The December when Trip was thirteen, when we drove up to Tahoe everyone had a turn plugging their iPod into the aux connector in the car, and Trip introduced to me Matt Nathanson, Jason Mraz, and Taylor Swift. He had already introduced me to Green Day, Colbie Callait and numerous other artists that I still listen to. We were driving in my car just a couple of years ago when the song playing on this page came on and Trip told me he would like this song played if died he young.

Trip was very articulate and an excellent writer. I always thought he could combine his ability to befriend people and really get to know them, with his writing abilty, and become a journalist. He wanted to help people, but was more interested in being a first responder of some sort. He wanted to make a difference. And he did. He taught me so much and I know he touched the lives of many others. May each of those touches produce positive ripples.

Interests
Trip had this ability to become interested in something, devour it almost to the exclusion of all else, and then when he was done, he was done. He gave away his trading cards, the books, whatever went with the interest he had finished. The only possession he held sacred was his phone: it connected him to his friends, current world events and music, and that is ultimately what he was about.

Age 2 Construction Trucks
Age 3 Buzz Lightyear
Age 4 Dinosaurs
Age 5 Star Wars
Age 7 Yugioh
Age 9 Magic 
Age 11 Dungeons and Dragons
Age 12 Greek Mythology
Age 12 on Current World Events

U.S. History and Politics: He got a 5 on the U.S. History AP exam and I remember when he came out and I asked him how it went, he said he wasn't sure. I asked what kind of questions they asked and he told me one. I was stumped. I asked him what he wrote and when he told me I was blown away by the out-of-box answer he gave. In ninth grade he received an award for bringiing the most interesting new ideas to class. 

Favorite books: As a child, the first book he really talked about was Bud, Not Buddy. As a teenager, loved the book Chasing Ghosts by Paul Rieckhoff, written by an Amherst grad, ex-Wall Street investment banker, who gave it up to enlist and lead troops in Iraq. Wrinkle In Time and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy were others.

Crash was his favorite movie from the age of about fourteen. He liked shows that showed both sides of life; particulary the messy side. He would not want to have reality whitewashed. Of course, we used to watch The Gilmore Girls together... He was so willing to try things; he didn't judge something he didn't know; and even then, he knew it was his view. In some ways, I always thought he was an old soul because of his equanimity about most things, his lack of materialism, his ability to be in the present and not dwell in the past or consider the future, his belief that everyone had something to say that was worth listening to. 

Born: Mar 20, 1995 in Stanford, CA

Died: Oct 06, 2015 in Prescott, AZ