Charles W. Merriam III ’53

Charles W. Merriam III ’53, of Webster, N.Y.; Aug. 16, 2020, from vascular dementia. After earning a master’s degree at MIT in 1958, he moved to New York to work for General Electric. He became a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University in 1964 and taught there until 1971. He later moved his family to Brighton, N.Y., to serve as chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Rochester. He was chair for more than a decade and thereafter remained a professor. He served on several university committees and authored engineering textbooks. He retired from the University of Rochester in 2001 at the age of 70 and studied music at Eastman Community Music School and sang with the New Horizons Choir in the Rochester area. He was a fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A varsity soccer player at Brown, he was a team captain and named an Honorable Mention All American his junior and senior years. He was inducted into the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society in 1953. He enjoyed traveling with his wife and spending time with his family at their summer cottage in Southwest Harbor, Me. There he learned to sail, pursued his passion for photography, and took up wooden bird carving. In addition, he played golf and won several senior golf tournaments. In 2014, after his wife’s passing and early-stage dementia, he moved to a nursing home in Webster. He is survived by a daughter; son Stephen ’79; a daughter-in-law; three grandchildren; and a stepsister.