Charles H Wise

Charles H Wise (Chuck)  August 5, 1952 - April 15, 2026

Charles H Wise, age 73,  of Blue Bell,  PA, continued on his travels early Wednesday morning, likely with a backpack, sleeping bag, travel chess set, and a hop-on-hop off bus pass. His family likes to imagine he uttered the phase, "let's blow this fascist popsicle stand," which they heard so many times before when he was ready to take his leave.  He left behind a mountain of books, 3 chess sets,  many back issues of Chess Life Magazine, binders full of chess studies, a broken-down VW Golf,  canceled checks going back to 1982, and a lifetime of love, laughter, and memories. 

Chuck is deeply missed and loved by his favorite and only daughter Jennifer Wise alongside Kyle McDaniel, Shayne Wise, (Dory) and Nick Hoffman who were like sons to him,  many nephews and nieces, and 2 corgis.

Chuck both loved and disliked many things but like everything he did it was with passion, curiosity, and humor. He loved drinking beer and espresso martinis al fresco, arguing that science fiction books were superior to fantasy, studying and playing chess, reading,  traveling the world, going to the beach, John Prine, the English countryside,  going to plays and musicals in NYC, $4 haircuts in Turkey, and the Outlaw Josie Wales.  He loved cats but hated scooping litter.  He disliked novels written by philosophers, Henrik Ibsen plays, barrel-aged beers (beer should taste like beer), tomato pie (it's just sauce and bread), turning on the heat when we could wear 4 layers, and menus without prices.  He was singularly unmaterialistic, frugal with himself but generous with those he loved. 

Aligning his desire to get paid to read books and play chess, Chuck worked third shift (and pulled many double shifts) at Norristown State Hospital, where he retired at the age of 59, after carefully calculating the minimum pension payment he would need to get out as early as possible. He promptly turned around and gave his daughter and son-in-law a chunk of his pension for the downpayment to their first home and then took off solo backpacking his way through Europe for 6 months. 

After retirement, he was a one-time civil war tour guide, which was an unpaid position that consisted of Chuck loudly pointing out factual errors on the tour in hearing range of the actual guide. Obviously, this was of short tenure.

Chuck read over 6,000 books  (4,546 are listed here https://www.librarything.com/catalog/chuckyxchess) Astonishingly, 500 of these are books about chess. He taught himself chess at the age of 14 and spent a life time studying openings, end games, and strategies documenting his studies in shelves of binders and notebooks. He played in several local chess clubs, US Chess Opens, and National Chess Congress matches winning trophies and monetary prizes for his ranking. Chuck also won Father of the Year and Most Loved Dad for 50 years running, meeting extremely high standards and judged by those of good taste who know about these things.  

Chuck traveled widely the same way he lived his life - with gusto and frugality. He backpacked through Alaska and through Europe and Canada several times, and visited both the north and south islands of New Zealand. He even visited Middle Earth and drank beer brewed by hobbits, despite his feelings about fantasy novels. He traveled to about 21 countries at least once and re-visited a few favorites.   An exact count is difficult to determine as he traveled pre- and post-Cold War, once playing chess on a train in Yugoslavia drinking Rakia. His family is unsure how to count the former Yugoslavia. He instilled his love of travel in his daughter, when he took her on a month-long backpacking trip in Europe when she was 11, where she saw the Tapestry of Bayeaux and was given a very long history lesson on the 1066 Battle of Hastings. 

Chuck was an inexhaustible fount of knowledge about the arcane and the mundane, making him the perfect trivia partner and barstool philosopher. A humble man, he would always preface the correct answers to the original 1981 Trivial Pursuit with, "I don't know but I think the answer is..." with his hands behind his head. Consequently, Chuck never lost a game. He also had many hidden talents, some that only emerged when the exact right amount of alcohol had been consumed that included pool shark, acrobat, and arcade basketball champion.

His commitment to environmentalism and his dislike of spending money unnecessarily meant that Chuck was able to repair most anything to his general satisfaction with a role of duct tape. The sole exception being a 20-year-old microwave that he had attempted to have fixed by a professional repairman 3 times at 5 times the cost of purchasing a new one because he did not want it to end up in a landfill.

Most of all, Chuck was always true to himself and loved his family fiercely. He was witty and generous. He was kind and smart. He was fun. He was a great dad, uncle, friend, father-in-law, drinking buddy, and travel partner. He was quick to admit fault and to forgive. He loved life and made the lives of those around him brighter with his booming laugh. He will be forever loved and forever missed by those fortunate enough to know him.

Anyone looking to honor Chuck can read a damn book already, travel widely,  have a pint (or several), hold those you love close, help when and where you can without expectation, be passionate about what interests you, and always endeavor to persevere. 

A private Celebration of Life will be held.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Charles H Wise, please visit our floral store.