Charlotte O. Hawtin

Charlotte Hawtin, former executive director of The Joseph Richey Hospice, passed away peacefully at her Glen Arm, Md., home on Tuesday, November 19th. Mrs. Hawtin, who was 72, had been suffering from early onset dementia for some years.

A native of Richmond Heights, a suburb of St. Louis, Mo., Charlotte was a woman with a remarkable resume, including financial journalist, forensic corporate analyst, art market expert, corporate takeover advisor, school board president and health care executive.

But she was a much more than a hard-charging career women. She was a gourmet cook who adored entertaining, playing the piano, a challenging hand at bridge, the theater, the opera and reading aloud, especially to children –her own and any others who would listen.

She was also a bit of fashion plate – in her youth André Courrèges was one of her favorite designers as was Yves Saint Laurent. Her taste in shoes, of which she had many, owed more to elegance than comfort.

A star student at high school, Charlotte turned down scholarships at several of Ivy Leagues to spare her parents the expense and anxiety of an only daughter living half a continent away. Instead she opted for Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.

Enthusiastically engaged in all aspects of campus life, she was president of the Greek Council and wrote for the university newspaper and year books. She was also noted for writing and performing in comic musical reviews. Somehow she also found time to major in journalism.

In 1968, she blithely turned down a job as staff reporter with the Des Moines Register and set off for New York to make her mark in America’s toughest news market. Within four years she landed one of New York’s journalistic plums: an assignment as one of Forbes Magazine’s two foreign correspondents, based in London, England.

No bad for a girl from the Mid-West. Top jobs at New York’s news magazines was largely dominated by graduates of the East Coast Ivy Leagues. A degree even from a highly respected university like Drake was generally regarded with condescension, if not downright contempt.

Fortunately she was blessed with a biting wit. It was on ready display during a lunch with Jim Michaels, Forbes’ iracible editor in chief, at Rules, the fashionable London restaurant, at which the late King Edward VII frequently as entertained his mistresses.

“Charlotte, just think where you would be if you’d only you’d gone to Harvard,” remarked Michaels, with the admiring condescension of a unreconstructed Ivy Leaguer.

“Yeah,” said Charlotte, laconically, “I’d be sitting here in Rules, eating lunch with you.”

“Point taken,” replied Michaels, chastened.

In the mid 1970s, she married and moved to Frankfurt, West Germany, with her husband, a foreign correspondent for the London Financial Times. There she freelanced for Forbes, the Financial Times and other financial and economic journals. She also served on the board of the Frankfurt International School and was a founder of The Frankfurt English Speaking Theater.

In 1980, Charlotte and her family returned to the United States, settling in Huntington, Long Island, N.Y. She continued writing for national and international economic publications as well as editing International Art Market, a magazine that monitored the multi-million dollar world of art and antiques.

In addition, as a forensic corporate analyst, she advised companies engaged in takeover bids. She was financial analyst for News Corp’s bid for Warner Brothers, and she successfully led the fight to save Booker McConnell, the giant British sugar corporation from a hostile takeover.

The devoted mother of three and deeply concerned about the direction of American school systems, she was elected to Huntington’s board of education, becoming its president and managing its multi-million dollar budget.

In 1989, she gave up New York journalistic career to become a parson’s wife and concentrate on raising her young family when her husband, an Anglican clergyman was called as rector of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Timonium, Md.

But shortly after the family’s arrival in Baltimore, Charlotte volunteered to write a fund-raising newsletter for The Joseph Richey Hospice. Not long after that she was appointed the institution’s communications director and chief financial officer. She retired as executive director in 2014.

As Joseph Richey’s primary fund raiser, Charlotte personally raised more than $20 million for the institution, including more than $4 million for Dr. Bob’s Place children’s hospice which opened in 2010.

In her spare time, she volunteered at St. Stephen’s Church, leading its Sunday School, and helping to launch its Parish Life Committee and its annual fund raisers, the Cookie Walk and the British Garden Party.

Last year St Stephen’s showed its appreciation for her work by establishing the Charlotte Hawtin Award to honor women who have made important contributions to the parish.

Charlotte is survived by her husband of 45 years The Very Rev. Guy P. Hawtin, children CatherineFrome (Heath), Elizabeth Hawtin and Nicholas Hawtin (Kamilla); grandchildren Madeline, Paxten, Ashten, Alma, and Storm; and a host of nieces and nephews.

The family will receive friends in the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, Inc., 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Road) Timonium, Maryland 21093 on Saturday, November 23 from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9PM .

A Requiem Mass will be celebrated at the St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, 11856 Mays Chapel Road, Timonium, MD 21093 on Monday, December 9 at 11AM . Interment Private.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be directed in Charlotte Hawtin’s memory to St. Stephen’s Anglican Church, at the above address and/or Gilchrist, 11311 McCormick Road, Suite 350, Hunt Valley, MD 21031.