Charles Jarvis

Charles Edward Jarvis, Colonel, AUS, Ret.
Feb. 4, 1919 - Feb. 4, 2015

With deep sorrow the Jarvis Family announces the death of their beloved father, Charles "Mike" Edward Jarvis, who died Wednesday, February 4th, on the afternoon of his 96th birthday, surrounded by his loved ones and caregivers of Sacred Heart Home in Hyattsville, MD. He is survived by his six children, Marianne, Julia (Larry Myers), Mark (Anne McDonald), Katherine (Larry Smith), Susan (Matthew Di Cocco), and Beth (Randy Redmond), and by his 11 grandchildren, Emma, Casey, Zachary, Julia, Jacob, Cliff, Andre, Connor, Mason, Cara, and Mia, and great-granddaughters, Sydney and Leila. He also leaves behind three siblings, Laurence (Coe) Jarvis, Margaret Bowen, and Sheila Rice, as well as many beloved nephews and nieces. He is predeceased by his wife of 59 years, Mary, and his 11 year old son, Kevin, whom he will shortly join at Arlington National Cemetery.

Dad was born on Rhode Island Avenue in Washington, D.C. in 1919, the fourth of nine children, a third generation Washingtonian. He was the proud recipient of a Jesuit education at Gonzaga High School and Georgetown University, class of 1941. As a young boy he loved baseball and the Senators, spending many summer afternoons at old Griffith Stadium where he acquired two baseball cards personally signed by Babe Ruth, and one signed by Lou Gehrig, as well as a baseball signed by future Hall of Famers Ruth, Gehrig, Walter Johnson, and Rogers Hornsby, among others. He had the dubious but boastful distinction of being chased off the ball field one golden afternoon by none other than the Babe himself.

Upon graduation from Georgetown, he enlisted in the Officers' Training Program, US Army, just prior to Pearl Harbor. The holder of seven medals dating back from his service in World War II, which included the Ryukyus campaign on Ie Shima and Okinawa, he attained the rank of Colonel. He received still another medal in a military ceremony when he retired after 31 years of distinguished Army service that culminated as commander of the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Riverdale, Maryland. He also had a long and distinguished career with the Veterans' Administration in Washington, D.C.

Dad's intellectual curiosity about the world lured him to take the slow boat home from Japan after the end of WWII, where he traveled half way around the world. He married in the freezing winter of 1947 and honeymooned with his Minnesota-born wife in New York City, and welcomed their first baby in December 1947. She would be the first of seven.

Dad was known for his wit and wisdom, and was unfailingly courteous to one and all. As a commander and leader of men and women, he always strove to make a friend rather than an enemy. He never shirked a duty and was sunny in all weathers. As the son of a Shakespearean actor, he could recite chapter and verse from many plays and poems. Some of his happiest years were spent with his family at Rehobeth Beach, Delaware, during the summers where he would rent a large house, and later at his vacation home in Lewes, Delaware. Another highlight of his life was traveling to Europe for the first time with his wife and youngest daughter where they were snowbound in a wintry London and enjoyed every minute. Other trips took them to several times to Barbados and Sea Island, Georgia.

Dad was an elegant man, handsome, tall, and well-dressed at all times. He loved opera, classical music, his personal library of books, gardening, and his succession of Cadillac Broughams. As a life-long devoted Catholic, he drew solace from his religion upon the untimely death of his first-born son at age 11.

Celebration of his life will take place at Gasch's Funeral Home, P.A., 4739 Baltimore Avenue, Hyattsville, MD, on Monday, February 9 from 2-4 and 6 -8 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be at Sacred Heart Home, 5805 Queens Chapel Road, Hyattsville MD 20782 at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, February 10. Burial will take place later at Arlington National Cemetery on a date to be announced. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in his name to the Sacred Heart Home, Hyattsville, MD and/or to the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, 5805 Queens Chapel Road, Hyattsville, MD 20782.

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