Charles Edward Gilchrist

Charles Edward Gilchrist, 93, of Sanford, North Carolina died on Monday, August 19, 2024. 

Born on the River Road in Harnett County on May 29, 1931, Charles was the fourth son of William Clayton and Clara Mansfield Gilchrist. He grew up on a tobacco farm and graduated from Lillington High School. He served in the United States Air Force as an X-Ray technician, traveling to Japan, Korea and across the United States. He received a Master’s Degree in Education from Appalachian State Teachers College and began teaching social studies at Dunn High School in 1958. There he met and married Bonny Cameron Gilchrist, his beloved wife of forty-six years, who predeceased him. They had two children, Winston and Annette.

Charles was principal of Moncure Elementary School from 1964 to 1968 and taught history in the public schools until his retirement in 1989. Thereafter, he devoted himself to reading, raising cattle and to his family.

Possessing an excellent, if sometimes spicy, sense of humor, integrity of character and outspoken convictions, Charles had endless sympathy for the underdog, love for those dearest to him, and an abiding faith, born of a lifetime of Bible-reading and experience, that doing the right thing was always the best thing to do.

Hardworking, joyful, kind, sometimes stubborn, he was the very best of husbands, fathers, teachers. Take him for all in all, we shall not look on his like again until we rejoice together with Charles and Bonny in the world to come.

Charles is survived by his children, his brother Ray, his daughter-in-law Beth Gilchrist, his son-in-law Andres Lopez, his grandchildren Joshua and Jordan Gilchrist, and Jewel Lopez, numerous nieces, nephews and in-laws and thousands of students whom he helped and inspired. The legacy of his rich life lives on in all of them.

A funeral service will be held at 4:00 PM Friday, August 23, 2024 at O'Quinn-Peebles-Phillips Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Barrett Payne officiating. Burial will follow in Cool Springs Methodist Church Cemetery at 2741 Cool Springs Road, Broadway, NC. The family will receive friends after the graveside service at the cemetery. 

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