- Date Of Birth: July 21, 1922
- Date Of Death: December 10, 2010
- State: Connecticut
Charles Frederick Burdick died peacefully on December 10th, 2010, with the “best thing that ever happened to him”, his wife Gladys, by his side. He was 88 and had just spent the entire day happily and lovingly with his children and grandchildren. Charlie and the former Gladys Tschauder celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary in October.
Charlie was an auto mechanic all of his life, and could diagnose a machine’s problems by asking the customer whether it was a tick, tick, tick, or thumpa, thumpa sound they were hearing. His reputation was known far and wide as an expert (recognized as such in Alexander Calder’s autobiography), especially with antique cars. Remarkably, he spent 52 years working for the same Chevy dealership, first known as Carl and Walt’s Garage, later becoming Don Heavens’ Chevrolet and eventually West Chevrolet. In all that time his family only remembers him missing two days of work–once when he was so sick he couldn’t move and they made him stay home, and the other was the day he turned 50 and decided to go fishing. He continued to work a full 40-hour week until he was 82. For many years, Charlie was also the after hours wrecker operator, so if you found yourself needing a tow, chances are he was the one helping you out of your nighttime jam.
His parents Chester Burdick and Ida Cole Burdick moved from house to house when Charlie was young, but he found his home when they settled in Woodbury.
