Charles Thornton “Charlie” Sweeny

June 20, 1929 - December 25, 2020

A long- time resident of San Mateo, Charlie passed early in the morning on Christmas Day after a brief illness.

Charlie was married for 64 years to his beloved Barbara, who predeceased him in the spring of 2018. He was father of son Charles Edward Sweeny ( former wife Naomi Yamazaki) and daughter H. Angela Moss ( husband Thomas). Grandfather of Koto Yamazaki- Sweeny. Uncle of devoted nephew David Charles Sweeny. Predeceased by his father, the Rev. Harold John Pattison Sweeny; mother, Grace Augusta Thornton Sweeny; brother, Dr. Edward Knight Sweeny; and sisters Grace Estelle Sweeny and Grace Eleanor Sweeny Alznauer. Charlie is survived by his sisters- in- law Betty Woodyard of Illinois and Shelby Jean Leahy of Florida as well as by many nieces, nephews and dear friends, including his best friend and steadfast companion, Dennis Beach. Charlie also leaves behind his two black cats Bob and Robert, “The Bobs”, who have a happy life with Angela and Tom.

At age 16, Charlie ran away from his troubled home in Elizabeth, NJ with 63 cents in his pocket, and shortly afterwards joined the U. S. Navy and served as a Hospital Corpsman. Charlie said the Navy quite literally saved his life, because it gave him a home, training, and purpose. Decades later, Charlie enjoyed telling people that during his entire three years of service that the only time he spent on a ship was a 20- minute ferry boat ride to a training camp in Maryland. “You go where they send you,” he would laugh. In his later years, Charlie would wear

Navy- themed hats and jackets to attract attention, so that he might engage in conversation with unmoored young people and encourage them to find their way with the structure and support of the military.

Dire circumstances and struggles in his young life meant that although brilliant, Charlie never graduated from high school or college. But while starting a family with his wife Barbara and working full- time in various mid- level hospital administration jobs in Illinois and Indiana, Charlie eventually earned his MBA degree from the University of Chicago, graduating at the age of 36. Charlie went on to become an expert in hospital administration, and over his 40- year career was responsible for hospital construction and modernization projects in Ohio, New York and finally, in the California Bay Area.

After retirement in 1994, Charlie became an antiquarian in San Francisco and provided research and historical background provenance for militaria collector maps, art prints and lithographs. He was a devoted member of the Peninsula Civil War Round Table historical society, and the San Bruno chapter of the Marine Corps League, and attended their monthly meetings for many decades. He attended hundreds of Bay Area gun shows, and made many friends with his fellow militaria and gun collectors. For 20 years, Charlie was a weekly volunteer at a local VA hospital, providing muchneeded companionship to disabled elderly veterans, feeding them, and reading to them aloud. And starting in 1946, Charlie donated blood like clockwork every eight weeks until 2011 when the Red Cross insisted that he retire his arm. Over a 65- year period, Charlie estimated he had given over 50 gallons of blood.

A supremely intelligent and well- spoken man with high moral standards and gracious and courtly manners, Charlie read deeply and wide. His brother Ed once remarked, “I’ve had the privilege of knowing two absolutely brilliant men in my life. One won the Nobel Prize. The other is my kid brother Charlie.”

Charlie was profoundly knowledgeable in all areas of culture, history, politics, the sciences, art and music, and remained up- to- date with current trends and genres. He enjoyed classics like Johan Sibelius, the Scottish bagpipes, Dixieland and Big Band music, and last year he also remarked on the talents of the singer Pink ( whose name and history he knew) and that he enjoyed Queen Latifah ( familiarly calling her “Queen”.)

Charlie had a joyful sense of the ridiculous. During his lifetime, he memorized and catalogued in his steel- trap brain over 1,800 jokes, many of them long and anecdotal, some of them full of puns, and some quite bawdy. He perfected their delivery and timing by rehearsing in the shower and while shaving. When he felt he had a joke the way he wanted it, he would wait months for the perfect apropos moment to work it into a conversation, wherein his performance would invariably bring down the house, always with Charlie bursting into delighted laughter along with his audience. Charlie had a great laugh: round, rich and rolling.

Charlie and Barbara shared their home with many cats over the years, and would enjoy reading with a lapful of felines, or snuggling under the covers watching TV. They gave the cats silly names that always engendered conversation. There were three cats named “Shaygitz”, two cats named PMR ( Princess Margaret Rose), two named “Himself”, and more recently, “The Bobs”. The Bobs are two jet- black brother cats— one called Bob, and the other Robert, named in memory of nephew Bob Sweeny and in honor of Colonel Robert Sweeney, Charlie’s longtime dear friend.

As a history aficionado, it was with great pleasant surprise in 2018 that Charlie learned he was descended from a patriot who fought in the Battle of New Haven in the American Revolution. Through the loving efforts and expertise of his niece Cathy Alznauer Greenblum, Charlie was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, and he proudly wore on the lapel of his blue blazer the commemorative SAR pin that she gifted to him.

Charlie was at his core a gentle soul, familiar with the fear and experience of poverty. He combined his intrinsic understanding of human suffering with the practicality of money, and regularly donated to hundreds of wide- ranging charities over the decades, from the NAACP to The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, to the ASPCA. He was generous with his San Mateo neighbors and friends, buying special magazines or cutting newspaper clippings he thought would be of interest, and offering small gifts to children out for walks with their parents. He continued this generosity while in residence at Mills Estate Villa, where he was known as “Chocolate Charlie” for the boxes of See’s and Hershey’s chocolates he would bring to the nightly dinner table.

For over 15 years, Charlie was the sole caregiver for his wife, Barbara, who suffered from congestive heart failure. While Charlie’s own health declined in his 80’ s with increasing blindness from macular degeneration and the resulting unsteadiness from his limited vision along with kyphosis, he devoted himself completely to Barbara’s well- being. The effort required to maintain that life was tremendous, and Charlie streamlined a daily care routine with precision skills to keep Barbara at home as long as possible. When Barbara finally went to live at a residential facility, every morning Charlie would take a taxi to her side, and he would sit with her all day until dark. He did this every day for six months, until Barbara peacefully passed, with Charlie holding her hand.

The family would like to thank the loving staff of Mills Estate Villa / CiminoCare-- in particular, Executive Director, Delia Montano; Resident Care Coordinator Anne Tiquez; Administrative Assistant ( and Head of Charlie’s IT Department) Ida Ng; and caregivers Yolanda Valencia and her husband Armando Rivera. They all went above and beyond in their kindness and devotion in caring for Charlie. Our deepest thanks also go to Yvette Chu, NP, of the Kaiser Permanente Palliative Care Program in San Bruno for her constant long- distance communication, good humor and detailed attention to Charlie’s care. And finally, deep thanks go to Guy Watase, Charlie’s physical therapist and QuantumTouch Practitioner, who proved to former atheist Charlie that there are more things in heaven and earth than he dreamt of in his philosophy.

Cremation will be private at Sneider- SullivanO’Connell’s Funeral Home in San Mateo. And on one sunny, blue- skied day when California is free of COVID19, the ashes of Charlie and Barbara will be scattered together in the waters under the Golden Gate Bridge. Memorial donations can be made to: Bay Area Alliance For Animals in San Carlos ( www. bayareaa4a. org), Homeless Cat Network in San Carlos ( www. homelesscatnetwork. com), Nine Lives Foundation in Redwood City ( www. ninelivesfoundation. org)