Charles William Tait

An Episcopal priest, longtime teacher, former Department of State official, and veteran of WW II, Charles was a talented linguist with a reading knowledge of several dozen tongues. He was also a scholar of European history.

Born in Boston in 1923, Charles was the only child of British parents, Charles and Jennie (Thorpe) Tait. His father was of Scottish ancestry and grew up in Jamaica. He worked first as a dentist and then as a salesman of dental equipment. Jennie came from Stockton-on-Tees, north of Durham.

As a young child, Charles was fascinated by the sounds of his neighbors in Boston talking in many foreign tongues, including German, Yiddish, Hungarian, and Swedish. Starting in the fifth grade, Charles learned German from a friend’s mother. An elementary school teacher noticed Charles’ aptitude and arranged for him to take the entrance exam for the Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America. In grades seven through twelve, Charles completed six years of Latin, four years of German, and four years of French. Learning became the joy and mainstay of Charles’ youth, and helped him to bear the many trials and hardships that the Great Depression visited upon him and his family.

Charles enrolled in Harvard College in the fall of 1941. When Pearl Harbor came, he immediately added intensive Japanese to his studies of German and Russian. He entered the Army in early 1943, serving first as a translator of intercepted Japanese cables, and later as a German translator for American forces on the front lines in Europe. He volunteered for additional duty in Germany when the fighting ended, serving with a special counterintelligence company assigned to track down Nazi war criminals who had gone into hiding.

He returned to Harvard in 1946 to complete his studies, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in comparative philology. There he met Katharine Jane Russell, daughter of British philosopher Bertrand Russell and Dora Black Russell. They married in 1948 and had five children.

Charles’ experience of the terrible realities of war led him to seek a peacemaking role in the Department of State. His academic knowledge and military-intelligence experience made him a natural fit for the Intelligence Branch, where he covered Czechoslovakia in the Eastern European section from 1950 to 1958.

In the 1950’s he began to experience a call to the ministry, which led him to attend Virginia Seminary from 1958 to 1961. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in Plymouth, England, in 1962. He taught for two years at Bishop Tucker College, an Anglican seminary in Uganda. He served as a parish priest in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and then on an interfaith peace committee of the American Friends Service Committee in New York City, working to end the war in Vietnam.

In the second half of his career, Charles decided to focus his skills and hopes for peace on teaching. He often said, “To do good in the world, become a teacher.” A friend from Virginia Seminary invited Charles to work at the Salisbury School in Salisbury, Connecticut. There Charles taught French, German, Latin, theology and European history from 1968 to 1987. He stayed in touch with many grateful students long after his retirement.

By the time Charles retired from Salisbury School, all his family members lived far away. Charles moved to Seattle in 1990 to be close to his son John. Though a New Englander at heart, Charles often said his move to Seattle was one of the best decisions he ever made. He joined a vibrant group of intellectual friends, mostly retired history professors, for a book discussion group, and he studied a new language almost every year. He enjoyed the close proximity to John and his family; he often said that the birth of John and Katherine’s twins in 2000, who came along more than a decade after his other grandchildren, was the surprise and delight of his later years.

Charles is survived by his former wife Katharine Russell Tait (“Kate”); Laura Hubbs Tait (widow of David Tait); Anne Tait (Bob Bonner); Jonathan Tait (“John”) (Katherine Kirkpatrick); Andrew Tait; Benjamin Tait (Laura Zacchi); and seven grandchildren: Aaron Tait, Aidan Tait, Eli Bonner, Alec Bonner, Max Bonner, Gwendolyn Tait, and Alexander Tait. He is predeceased by his son David.

Memorial gifts may be made to either: 1) Boston Latin School Association, 27 School Street, Suite 300, Boston MA 02108 (or online at blsa.org); or 2) Joshua Whatmough Library Fund, University of Washington Foundation, 4333 Brooklyn Ave. NE, Seattle, WA 98105 (or online at uwfoundation.org).

February 22, 2017

Arrangements under the direction of Acacia Memorial Park & Funeral Home, Seattle, Washington.