Charles Gordon Helms

Charles Gordon Helms was born March 27, 1936, in New Smyrna Beach Florida to Frank Coke Helms and Elizabeth Genevra Root Helms. He spent his boyhood in Plant City, FL and his teen years in DeKalb County, GA. He graduated from DeKalb County High School in 1954 and from Davidson College in 1958. Having heard the call to ministry, he attended Union Seminary in New York City where he studied under Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebhur. While there, he interned at Tulane University but was asked to leave when he tried to integrate the campus ministry. The Campus Ministry of the PCUSA then sent Charlie to the University of Florida where he met his wife Helen at a christian community. They were married in September of 1962.

Charlie was ordained by the Presbytery of Atlanta in 1962 and served Presbyterian churches in Bremen and Tallapoosa GA. In the early 1960’s Charlie moved the family to Atlanta. He was minister of the Inman Park Presbyterian Church, a small neighborhood church, one mile from the capital. He became involved in neighborhood development. He was a founding member of Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development; he worked with Urban Training Organization of Atlanta; Inman Park Restoration. He joined in civil-rights marches and accompanied a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee which performed spontaneous SIT-INs in the early 1960’s.

In 1972, Charlie was elected to the Atlanta City Council from District 2 and represented Little Five Points, Inman Park and other poor neighborhoods threatened by the giant expressway that was planned and underway. In addition to helping stop the expressway, Charlie also helped get the Tree Ordinance passed.

At this time, Charlie was called to pastoral counseling and began a program at the Georgia Association for Pastoral Care in Atlanta. He began his pastoral counseling career in 1977 in Jacksonville, FL at the Pastoral Counseling and Consultation Services.

In May of 1980, Charlie earned a ‘Doctorate of Theological Studies’ from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. His dissertation was titled: “Divine Revelation in Dreams.” In 1985 he joined the Presbyterian Samaritan Counseling Center in Charlotte, NC which was sponsored by churches in the Charlotte Presbytery. There he became the Director and in addition to pastoral counseling developed a Pastoral Counseling Training Program along with the Methodists. He retired in AD 2000.

Charlie loved travel, reading… mostly novels, marrying folks, and the Thanksgiving holiday. He loved traveling with family and friends. He loved visiting the National Parks and donated to them for many years along with the Sierra Club. He loved waterfalls and would hike to every accessible one. He never turned down traveling with his children and grandchildren, his mother, and friends. He saw the Aegean Sea, and the early Christian church sites along the coast. Europe and Slavic countries and Machu Picchu in Peru, Hawaii and Russia.

He loved reading. Always had a book in his NOOK or a book in his hand. He adored the English classic novels and especially the women writers such as Jane Austen, Emily Bronte and the Southern women writers of the 19th, 20th, 21st centuries. He owned and read nearly every book that John Updike wrote and was reading Updike’s later books as he faced Eternity.

Thanksgiving was his favorite Holiday because it’s when all the family would gather and give great thanks to the Lord with Psalm 100.

Charlie lived a good life and was blessed with a good death. He passed peacefully and without pain on December 23, 2024 at home, in the late afternoon. His wife and his nurse were with him.

Family members mourning his loss include: his wife Helen Jane Hardesty Helms; his daughter Rachel Conerly; his daughter Tracy Rene’ Helms-Capasso (David); his son Nathan Hosea Helms (Mary Jo). His grandchildren: Grace Conerly; Harrison, Ty, AJ, and Carly Helms; Gabriel and Nathan Luke Helms-Capasso. His sister Linda Broxton; his nephew Sean Lynch.

A Memorial Service and celebration of life will be held on March 22, 2025 at 11 o’clock in the Chapel at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 1000 East Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28204.