Charles Edwin Jennings (Chuck) of Boynton Beach, Florida, and Waitsfield, Vermont, passed away on December 15, 2019, in Florida’s Wellington Regional Hospital following a battle with cancer. He was 88. He is survived by his wife, Nancy Grant Jennings. and his children, Mike (Sara), Sarah (Bryan), Tom (Kim); grandchildren Erica, Peter, Sam, Charlie, Becca, Laura, Dave, Emma, Adele and Charlie; great-grandson Logan, and his twin sisters Allie Castelli and Betsy Maley and her husband Bill. He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Ann “Sue” Jennings, his parents, Irving and Ellen Jennings, and his sister Ann Taussig.
Born in Winchester, Massachusetts, on February 17, 1931, Chuck attended Vermont Academy and graduated from Middlebury College. While at Middlebury, he played on the varsity hockey team and fell in love with his math tutor, Sue Valentine of Florida, who enabled him to keep his grades high enough to remain on the team. Following their graduation from Middlebury and while Chuck was enlisted in the Navy, they married on December 26, 1953.
Chuck and Sue settled into the community of Lincoln, Massachusetts, where he worked at Lite Control in Watertown, Massachusetts, and where they raised their children. In 1965, the young family purchased the old Bisbee farmhouse on Cross Road in Waitsfield, Vermont, to use as a ski house and began spending weekends in Vermont skiing and fixing up the old house. They made close friends in the skiing community, devoted many hours to the ski racing program and have an abundance of photos to depict the family fun they had during those years.
In 1982, Chuck and Sue founded Green Mountain Florist Supply, Inc. in Middlesex, Vermont. They grew the business into a second location in South Burlington and the business continues to serve florists, crafters and wedding designers under the leadership of their son, Tom.
The southern climate was calling and in 1986 Chuck and Sue purchased a second home in Boynton Beach, Florida, where both enjoyed making new friends and playing golf. It was a lovely period of years in which they enjoyed Vermont summers on Lake Champlain and at Burlington Country Club and Florida winters with their golf friends. During these years there was travel to Italy, France, China and Alaska; and hobbies including wooden boat restoration and classic boat shows.
Following Sue’s death in 2016, Chuck met and married Nancy Grant Lowery. Nancy brought Chuck tremendous happiness and cared for him in his final years. Perhaps it was a sign, but in Chuck’s last game of golf in the spring of 2019 before cancer began to overtake his health, he nailed a hole-in-one on 4 North at Quail Ridge. The golf gods must have been shining down on him.
The family will be holding a private service in Waitsfield later this month. To honor the passing of Chuck and Sue, the family invites people to consider presenting a flower to someone they love.
