Charles Horstmann

He was predeceased by his parents Florence and Henry Horstmann and sister Anne Marie. He is survived by his brother Henry Horstmann, wife Linda Horstmann, daughter Jennifer Horstmann Scales, her husband Alan Scales, their children Sam and Alex Scales, daughter Amy Horstmann, her partner Christopher Dillman, their son Nathan Dillman, son James Horstmann, his wife Sara Horstmann, and their children Charles, Anna, and William Horstmann.

Charlie, as he was known to many, lived a very full life. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York, where he spent most of his childhood. In his early years, his father worked as a banker, and mother was a homemaker. It was there that his sister, Anne Marie, and later brother Henry were born. Charlie was a good student, an altar boy, and boy scout. It was said that he was a local hero when he saw smoke coming from a neighbor’s house and saved the family’s home. Charlie’s family moved often but always lived within a short drive to the ocean, and they all developed a love of swimming in the Atlantic waves.

When Charlie was a Freshman in High School, the family moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and his parents bought a neighborhood variety store, known as the South Street Variety. The store was around the corner from Smith College and was complete with a counter and stools, soda fountain, grill, penny candy counter, ice cream coolers, and newspapers that were laid out daily on benches that ran across the front of the store. A couple years after their arrival in Northampton, eight days after Charlie turned 16, and four days after Christmas, his father died within a year of being diagnosed with cancer, leaving his mother to take over the store and care for her three children. It was during this time that his grandmother, “Granny Wetzel,” came to live with the family to help with the children.

Charlie had been raised catholic and had attended catholic schools his whole life until he requested to go to the public Northampton High School. It was there, in his junior year, that he met Linda Mazzeo and fell in love. The two dated the remainder of high school and continued during his four years at UMASS Amherst where he gained a degree in Civil Engineering. He often hitch-hiked back to Florence and Northampton to see Linda and his family and help with the family store. During his senior year of college, Charlie’s mother gifted him a Peugeot 403 with a sunroof, the same car used in the Columbo tv series.

Charlie had registered for the draft at 18 and was deferred throughout his time at UMASS as the Vietnam war was ongoing. Following graduation at UMASS, Charlie and Linda were married and honeymooned in Cape Cod.

That autumn Charlie entered graduate school at MIT, and they moved into married student housing along the Charles River. While at MIT, Charles was a research assistant, writing his thesis on orbital velocities in water waves. The young couple enjoyed Cambridge and Boston, making friends from all over the world.

In his second year at MIT, their daughter Jennifer was born. The same year, Linda’s brother Neil, who was attending Wentworth, came to stay in their tiny apartment, happily providing parenting advice for Jennifer, who slept in a bureau drawer.

Upon graduation from MIT, Charlie took a job in Oakland, CA working for Kaiser Engineers. He, Linda, and Jennifer, trekked across the US in the Peugeot, after building a little playpen for Jennifer in the back seat. While in California, they explored all that they could, and one of the highlights was visiting Mt. Diablo during tarantula migrating season.

After a year and a half, they missed their families and moved back east. Charlie took a job back in Boston working for an engineering consulting company, Charles Maguire, and settled into an area in Winchester, MA known as “the pit.” It was there that their daughter Amy was born. At his new job, Charlie worked on a design of a 50-foot-long wave tank that was on display for many years at the Boston Museum of Science. This was something his children later enjoyed showing their friends on school field trips.

After a few years, Charlie applied to a PhD Coastal Engineering Program at the University of Florida and began in 1970 (Go Gators!). The apartment in Florida would come alive at night with thumb sized cockroaches. It didn’t take long for Charlie to realize he preferred consulting engineering over research, and Linda was happy to leave the humidity, so they moved back north.

Charlie took a job at E.C. Jordan in Portland, Maine, and they settled in Yarmouth, a town on the coast, known for its schools and sense of community. Charlie and Linda rented a house in the center of Main Street, across from Harriman’s IGA Foodliner, and it was there that they experienced their first Yarmouth Clam Festival; something they looked forward to every year for the festive nature it created, and its contribution to many local non-profits.

Throughout his career, Charlie was able to witness the tunnels for the BART system in San Francisco being lowered into the bay through his involvement with the Civil Engineering Society, work as the town consulting engineer to Old Orchard Beach, design and manage the first expansion of the Poland Spring bottling plant, and work on the clean-up of the superfund sites at Love Canal in New York and Union Carbide in West Virginia.

After a couple of years in Yarmouth, their friends Bruce and Judy Borhmann advised them on buying a Victorian home in need of much repair. The house was further down Main Street, across the street from a local fire barn. The house needed so much work that Linda’s father cried upon seeing its state. The scheduled and non-scheduled blasting of horns and sirens from the fire barn continued for many years until it was decommissioned. They slowly fixed up the house, Charlie with help from friends and family, and Linda with her creativity. There was always a project going on, and it was common to hear the pitter patter of critters running through the walls, and the wind from the creaky elm tree that fanned over their metal roof. It was here that their son James was born, six years after their daughter Amy. The house was a happy home, and there were many fun times there, from the annual Clam Festival gatherings to the notorious Halloween parties and many birthday and holiday gatherings. Some of Charlie’s favorite times were sitting with friends and family on the front porch sipping gin and tonics or reading a book or newspapers while neighbors passed by.

Charlie and Linda grew to love the town and became volunteers for so many groups within town that they were awarded the Latchstring Award after several decades. They developed great friendships and in later years Charlie was welcomed into a group of men that met every Tuesday morning. He cherished these friends, and it was something that he looked forward to every week. He also explored new religions and settled on joining the local Unitarian Church, where he and some others started the New Years Eve Clam Drop, which took place every New Years Eve for years. He also helped develop the Yarmouth Community Garden, which was across from one of his favorite places, the town dump.

In the past decade, Charlie and Linda downsized to a condo on North Gables Drive in Yarmouth where they were able to live more freely without having the burden of the ongoing upkeep of the home where they had raised their family.

Charlie will be remembered for his sarcastic sense of humor, love for his wife and family, wide whale corduroys, gnomes, Polkarski’s sausages, and his lifelong love of learning and caring for others.

Please join us for a celebration of his life being held at the First Universalist Church of Yarmouth, Yarmouth Maine on July 15th at 11am. Refreshments to follow in the church basement.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the First Universalist Church of Yarmouth, 97 Main Street, Yarmouth ME 04096. Https://uuyarmouth.org. Or to the Yarmouth Community Garden c/o Yarmouth Community Services 200 Main Street, Yarmouth, ME 04096