Northwood News ♦ October 2006

Charlie Pritchard is Gone

By Carole Barth

Charlie Pritchard, longtime resident and former NFCCA President, died Monday, 4 September 2006.  Charlie will long be remembered for his tireless advocacy for natural trails and his feisty style of public involvement.

I remember meeting Charlie at the first NFCCA meeting I ever attended.  The topic of discussion was proposed “improvements” to Route 29 that would have removed the median strip.  Charlie described trying to cross the busy road with its short “walk” cycle.  He said, as an elderly person, he always packed a snack for the extended time he would spend standing on the median strip waiting for a break in the traffic.  The image stuck with me, as did many of Charlie’s clever turns of phrase.

Charlie was involved in too many community projects to describe here.  Whatever the issue, one thing I always appreciated about Charlie’s involvement was that he acted as well as advocated.  Charlie became one of the first volunteer “weed warriors” in Montgomery County.  He hadn’t yet learned to identify many of the invasives, but he did know how to recognize multiflora rose.  So one summer, he cleared out all the multiflora between the Lockridge Drive path and the creek from the park entrance to the first small bridge.  This was not unusual for Charlie, however.  He may have been our oldest volunteer, but Charlie handled one of the biggest newsletter delivery routes in the neighborhood.  In fact, Charlie seemed to live by the motto “Go Big, or Go Home.”

As I write this article, we are still awaiting news of the funeral arrangements for Charlie.  I hope that Northwood-Four Corners and the other groups Charlie was involved with will be well-represented at his service.  Still, many of us who worked with Charlie feel the need for a more personal expression of our appreciation for his life among us.

Therefore, we are encouraging people to remember Charlie with a “gift of trees” through the Tree-mendous Maryland Program.  Trees cost $25 each and 10 trees qualify as a grove.  Donors of a grove can specify where on public land they would like the grove to be planted.  We will be working with DNR and Park and Planning to get a grove planted along Charlie’s beloved Northwest Branch.  You can purchase a tree online at www.shopdnr.com/tree-mendousmarylandgiftoftrees.aspx or you can order by mail with a check or credit card number sent to:  TREE-MENDOUS MARYLAND, Department of Natural Resources, Forest Service, Tawes State Office Building, E-1, Annapolis, MD 21401.  IMPORTANT:  Be sure to specify that your tree is in memory of Charlie Pritchard.  This way we can accumulate a grove and designate a planting in the Northwest Branch.

[Note:  Link to DNR website above has been udpated from what appeared in the printed newsletter.]   ■