Charles Rosenbury Erdman III

1923 - 2018

Charles Rosenbury Erdman III passed away peacefully surrounded by members of his family on July 20, 2018 at his residence at Eskaton Retirement Community in Sacramento, CA. He was 94 years old. He is preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Joyce West Erdman, and his brother Harold.He is survived by his five children: Cully, Dick, Lucy, Sarah Lowis, and Calvin Erdman, and his brothers Peter, David, and Michael. Charlie, as he was known, was born on Sept. 7, 1923 in Princeton, NJ where his father was a professor at Princeton University and mayor of the same town. Charlie attended the university and graduated in 1946 after an interlude serving in WWII, where he saw combat in General Bradley's 9th army in France, Holland, and Germany. The family maintained a summer residence in Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard in MA, where Charlie met and married Joyce Ann West in 1949, who was born and raised there. They soon thereafter started their family and moved to East Dorset, VT where they built and ran a motel for many years in the southern Green Mountains where Charlie imbued his passion for skiing and the idyllic country life he so loved to his whole family. Upon retirement, he and Joyce moved to Stowe, VT and began spending winters in Lake Tahoe, CA and summers back at their beloved Edgartown, and enjoyed many extended visits at both places with their children and grandchildren. Charlie also became part of the Eskaton Retirement community in his later years where he spent 18 years, making many new friends in this closing chapter of his life. Family was always the center of Charlie's life, as was a good party, and he maintained a large circle of friends throughout his long life. His good humor, generosity, boundless energy and can-do attitude affected everyone around him and brought out the best in people. But above all his love of his family will always be remembered by those who knew him; he was a larger than life figure whom his children will always cherish and for whom he will always hold a special place in our hearts and memories.