OBITUARIES
Charles Waters Gilchrist, 62, of Baltimore, who left political life in 1986 at the end of his second term as Montgomery County executive to study for the Episcopal priesthood, died of pancreatic cancer Thursday, June 24, 1999, in Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. His wife, Phoebe, and his sister, Janet, were at his bedside.
The grandson of a Baptist minister and a native of Washington, he attended St. Albans School for Boys. After graduating magna cum laude from Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., in 1958 and earning a law degree from Harvard University Law School in Cambridge, Mass., in 1961, Gilchrist took up residence in Montgomery County and practiced tax law in the Washington-Baltimore area.
In 1974 Gilchrist was elected to the Maryland Senate and served until 1978. From 1978 to 1986 he served as Montgomery County's second county executive and its first Democratic one. During his tenure he was known for his dedication to public housing, road and school construction and shelters for the homeless and his successful encouraging of high-technology firms to take root in Montgomery County.
After leaving politics, Gilchrist trained at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. He took an assignment at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church on Connecticut Avenue near Dupont Circle in Washington, where he ministered to immigrants and homeless Hispanics. Later, he and his wife moved to the West Side of Chicago, where he managed the Cathedral Shelter for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts.
In the mid-1990s, Gilchrist moved to Baltimore and settled in the Sandtown neighborhood, where he directed operations for New Song Urban Ministries.
"Charlie was such a decent person, always a good, good man," said Anne Robbins, a longtime friend and wife of David Robbins, director of recreation for Montgomery County when Gilchrist was county executive. "He didn't like sentimentality, but I said to him, `You're always in my heart.' He was like an ideal for me."
He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Phoebe R., whom he had met at a Harvard Law School Christmas party; three children, Donald Gilchrist of Rockville, James Gilchrist of Annapolis and Janet Gilchrist of Pinos Altos, N.M.; a sister, Janet G. Dickey of Reston, Va.; and two grandsons, Sammy and Robin.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Washington National Cathedral, Massachusetts and Wisconsin avenues Northwest. Burial will be private. Arrangements were made by Pumphrey's Bethesda-Chevy Chase Funeral Home in Bethesda.
The family suggests memorial contributions be made to New Song Urban Ministries, 1300 N. Fulton Ave., Baltimore, Md. 21217; or to Cathedral Shelter of Chicago, 1668 W. Ogden Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60612; or to a charity of one's choice.
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