Charles Delahunt Mahaffie Jr.

He lived a rich and fruitful life as a father of seven and grandfather to 17. He is survived by wife of 66 years, Judy, and then his children in descending order: Margaret, Jim, John, Mike, Matt, Connie and Bob. Each have children of their own and Charlie was extraordinarily proud of his large extended family, often saying, "I invest in grandchildren." Indeed, he put all seven children through college and helped with all of the grandchildren's educations.

Connie was originally a niece of Charlie and Judy. When her family broke up suddenly, Connie came to live with the Mahaffies at age three, and instantly became a sister. Her older birth siblings also spent some time with the Mahaffies. In 2019, Connie was finally formally adopted by Charlie and Judy, and that event was a great source of pride and joy for the entire family. There was a moment at the adoption proceedings at the courthouse in Rockville when the judge asked Charlie, "Are you prepared to take on the responsibilities of parenting this child?" Charlie grinned and just gestured at the at-least 12 children and grandchildren sitting in the courtroom.

He is remembered as sometimes stern, very wise, thoughtful and very witty. Getting him to laugh was a proud achievement for his children, and he could be very goofy and funny with his grandchildren. He was an amazing storyteller, often making up long narratives that could be hilarious, scary and absurd, all at the same time. He would tell his stories at children's bedsides, campfires and beach gatherings.

Though he sported a crewcut most of his life and wore Brooks Brothers suits, he was fairly liberal and, in certain ways, ahead of his time. Long before the physical fitness boom in America, he lifted weights with a barbell set in the utility room in his home on Wynkoop Blvd. in Bethesda. He was a runner and cyclist, rising at dawn to ride his bike and going for long runs on the C&O Canal Towpath. When he was in private practice, the Cleary Gottleib, Steen & Hamilton law firm built him a shower in their offices on N Street in Washington so he could bicycle to work.

A devout reader, he spent hours every night devouring histories and biographies. "The New Yorker" and "The Economist" were always on his coffee table. He inherited a large book collection from his parents and several custom bookshelves, a few of which are still in the condo home at Fox Hill in Bethesda. You could ask him all kinds of arcane questions and he could dredge up an astonishing amount of detailed knowledge on many subjects. "Dad, what was the outcome in the Battle of Hastings?" He would say, "Well, I don’t know much about that…" and then proceed with a 3-4-minute summation that answered your question perfectly.

After selling and moving from his Bethesda home on Wynkoop Blvd., he and Judy lived at Fox Hill, a Sunrise Senior Living community in Bethesda for the last 10 years. He was known there for having an uncanny knowledge of songs and lyrics from the past and remembering everyone’s name.

His children remember him singing the Amherst fight song, two versions of an 1800s music-hall song, "Abdul Abulbul Amir" and "Ivan Skivinsky Skavar," and reciting stanzas from Robert Service poems from the Alaska Gold Rush, such as "The Cremation of Sam McGee," among other obscure performances. He could be depended on to sing at family gatherings, often with his great friend Richard Wertheimer on banjo.

After retirement, he judged high school history competitions. He also volunteered at So Others Might Eat (SOME), an organization that feeds the homeless in downtown Washington, DC.

He retired from the law in 1984 at age 53—very early in life compared to his peers. He had other plans. After retirement, Charlie researched and wrote, A Land of Discord Always: Acadia from Its Beginning to the Expulsion of Its People, 1604-1755, published in 1995. On their many travels, Judy and Charlie had explored Nova Scotia. Charlie had never found a history of the area that met his high expectations, so he wrote one. From one review:

"Little has been published about early Acadia (which included much of the Maine coast and the Maritimes) and the origins of the Acadians. This rich story, peopled with memorable men and women whose lives make fascinating reading, is skillfully chronicled by retired attorney and historical writer, Charles Mahaffie."

He had a longtime interest in American Colonial history, in particular. Said Charlie: "The story of Acadia furnished me a procession of colorful characters and the sort of accidents and event-shaping coincidences that make history an endless fascination."

He also curated and edited an enormous collection of his parent's letters to each other during their long and distant courtship in the 1920s. Isabel Cooper and Charles D. Mahaffie, Sr. were unique and fascinating people for their own times, she an artist and explorer who left home at 15 and lived in Manhattan and Washington, DC and he a Rhodes Scholar, athlete and attorney from Oklahoma and Oregon. This collection became a self-published book which Charlie distributed to his family and friends, and provides an excellent look into the lives of Mahaffie ancestors.

An only child to his parents who were well into their 30s when they were married, Charlie was educated at Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, then Amherst College and Harvard Law School in Massachusetts. Later, when asked about being an only child and then having so many babies of his own, he said, "I like kids."

While at Harvard Law School, he married Judith Farrar, a Mount Holyoke graduate, in 1954. He met her, a year his senior, while Charlie was at Amherst College. Family lore is that their first date was at the local dump where they went to shoot rats.

Judy was the true love of Charlie's life. June 18th was their 66th wedding anniversary. To anyone who knew them, they were obviously in love and deeply devoted to each other their entire lives together. Judy took great care of Charlie as his Parkinson's Disease progressed and they spent almost every moment together. On their 50th anniversary, there was a memorable family party where Charlie rented a moonbounce for the grandchildren. He naturally joined them on it.

His law career began in the U.S. Navy, where he served in Sasebo, Japan in the later years of the U.S. occupation after World War II and then in Middleton, Tennessee. In Japan, Charlie was a U.S. Navy ship’s legal officer, defending sailors who got into trouble on shore leave, and Judy took flower-arranging classes and enjoyed a completely different culture than her upbringing in Riverside, Connecticut. Judy and Charlie's first child, Margaret, was born in Sasebo, Japan.

Charlie joined the U.S. Department of Justice after discharge from the Navy, where he was an attorney at the Antitrust Division. In 1975, he joined as a partner of the prominent international firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Washington, D.C. where notable antitrust clients included several global oil companies dealing with OPEC and the oil embargoes.

There were always pets in Charlie’s life. Pets over the years included at least ten cats, a beagle named Joey, a lop-eared rabbit named Howard and various birds, hamsters, fish, newts and more, all which Charlie tolerated. Two cats, Fred and Dede, provided great joy to Judy and Charlie at their home at Fox Hill and still do today.

Perhaps to blow off stress and provide an outlet for his large family, Charlie and Judy bought a 106-acre farm in Boonsboro, Maryland in the late 1960s. It was just under an hour away from Bethesda, and had a trout stream, large fields, an orchard and woods and several buildings, including a house that dated back to the early 1800s.

At one point Charlie had an acre or more of vegetables growing on the farm, and would bring bushel baskets of squash, beans and corn back to Bethesda. At the farm, his children learned to shoot rifles, grow vegetables, pick apples, scrape paint, build wooden bridges, mow large swaths of land with a tractor and other skills they would never gain in Bethesda.

With Charlie's longtime love of the Atlantic Shore, the Mahaffies rented a home at the Delaware shore every summer. Before long they purchased a beach house of their own on Dune Rd. in Middlesex Beach and then built a home in Bethany Village which is still in the family today. Charlie was famous for baking in the sun and strolling the beach in floppy shorts. He was also known for getting in the water and swimming for long distances far out in the ocean.

Over the years the Mahaffies divided their time between Bethesda and Boonsboro, Maryland and Bethany Beach, Delaware. Charlie and Judy traveled extensively when they could do so, taking naturalist-led cruises where Charlie indulged Judy's love of bird-watching.

When the land holdings became too much, they sold the farm to a longtime tenant and spent more time at the beach house.

Charlie's greatest testament is the extraordinary wife he married, the wonderful family he raised and the families they are raising, in turn. He often joked with his children that they "married well," and he was not wrong. All Charlie and Judy's children are independent, grounded and good-hearted people, reflecting he and Judy's great parenting, unique gene pool and legacy.

Donations in Charlie Mahaffie's name can be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation of the National Capital Area.