Charlie Nearpass
- To: Multiple recipients of list <i*@rt66.com>
- Subject: Charlie Nearpass
- From: "* G* C* <j*@erols.com>
- Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 18:44:32 -0600 (MDT)
Friends -- Lois Rose suggested that I relate to you the unhappy news of
Dr. D.C. (Charlie) Nearpass' death on Monday morning, June 30. Charlie
was the hybridizer of DOVER BEACH, LORD BALTIMORE, SPINNING WHEEL,
PURPLE PEPPER, SWEET ANITA, MY KATIE, ROMAN CARNIVAL and several other
favorite irises. More than that, as all who knew him can attest, he was
a generous person, a constructive critic, and a gentleman. His Ph.D. was
in horticulture -- closer than that I can't remember. He was a member of
the Maryland Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (a
descendant of one or more persons who served the Revolution), an Army
veteran, and holder of the Bronze Star. Although I have known Charlie
since the late 1970s, I first had the pleasure of meeting his daughters
Katie (MY KATIE, 1986) and Anita (SWEET ANITA, 1986) at the funeral
home. On the day he was stricken (liver cancer), Charlie had sung a solo
in the choir at his church. His passing was mercifully swift. I wished
that bloom season was not over, so that irises might have graced his
passage. Happily, at the viewing, there was a wonderful bouquet of
Japanese irises brought by Clarence and Suky Mahan. Ordinarily, they,
too, would have been gone by now. Clarence wondered if they might not
have hung on for Charlie.
Griff Crump, along the tidal Potomac
