Surry
In the early morning of June 20, 2021 – both Father’s Day and the summer solstice – Charles Guilford passed away in the home he built surrounded by those he loved, having been diagnosed with cancer a month previously.
Charles MacNeal Guilford was born in Wilmington, Del., to Robert and Victoria (née Ochenkoski) Guilford on March 16, 1942. He was the eldest of their three children and was an adventurer and a scholar from a young age. His academic career started in disappointment when he realized he would not be learning to read on the first day of kindergarten. In junior high, he built his first house in a tree, 50 feet off the ground.
He attended Brandywine High School, Duke University, and Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon) before moving to Wyoming. This was one of the most formative periods of his life, and many of his most repeated stories (of which there were many) involved colorful characters from this time. He worked for a time for the U.S. Forest Service mending fences, sleeping rough in the high desert, and traveling by horseback, and then worked in the oil fields outside Big Piney, Wyo.
He finished his undergraduate degree at the University of Wyoming and went on to earn a master’s degree in English literature. His love of reading and written language continued throughout his life, and he had an impressive memory for poetry and verse. He was known to launch into recitations, sometimes unprompted, of Shakespeare, or Mary Oliver, or Chaucer in the original Middle English. He had a diverse array of other lifelong academic interests, from geology to physics, and he kept two editions of an astronomy textbook next to his bed for light reading.
His interest in Zen Buddhism began at Tassajara Zen Center in Big Sur, Calif., continued during his time as a union carpenter in San Francisco, and led him to drive across the country in 1976 in a ‘68 VW bus to Surry, Maine to become a student of Walter Nowick at the Moonspring Hermitage. He spent nine years as a dedicated student of Zen meditation, or Zazen. He was immensely interested in the workings of the human mind, and he methodically sought to understand his own, both through daily meditation practice and periodic weeklong retreats. This inward, contemplative journey continued for the rest of his life.
It was at Moonspring Hermitage that he met and married his wife and lifelong partner Susan, and their relationship grounded him in the loving and sacred world of family. Despite his serious spiritual questing, he was mischievous and playful at heart, and he lit up when he was around children. He was a devoted father to Alice and Sam, and when they were young he often amended his workweek to drive them to ballet and violin lessons. He invented stories about the world of the family’s backyard, including an adventurous family of raccoons, and he enjoyed reading aloud to his family even after a long workday, when he would come home from the boatyard smelling of sawdust and fiberglass. Both of his parents eventually moved to Maine, where they were an important part of their grandchildren’s young lives.
He was an artist and a masterful craftsman. He took great pride in his work as a finish carpenter and cabinetmaker, especially his time at various boatyards. He created beautiful things out of wood, from yacht details to doll furniture to musical instruments to the family home. He practiced calligraphy and made intricate handmade birthday cards and sang throughout his adult life – in a bluegrass band in Wyoming, with the Surry Opera Company, with the Peters Cove Men’s Chorus, and most recently with the Bagaduce Chorale. He loved to dance and could be counted on to inspire others to join in. At the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017, he initiated a rather large impromptu dance party on the National Mall. He danced at both of his children’s weddings.
He loved sitting with people and talking about their lives, and he was an active member of Maine Coast Men and Hospice Volunteers of Hancock County through the end of his life.
He leaves behind his wife Susan; daughter Alice and her husband Travis; son Sam and his wife Carolyn; sister Barbara; niece Tessa and her husband Alex; nephew Gerard, and grand-nieces and -nephews Carman, Luke, Roman, and Isabella. He follows his mother Victoria, father Robert, and brother Richard.
A celebration of his life will be held at the Morgan Bay Zendo later this summer.