Charles I. Wallace, Jr. ’65 died on December 17, 2025, in Salam, Oregon.
(The following was provided by the Statesman Journal on January 4, 2026:)
Charles I. Wallace, Jr. ’65
Charlie Wallace died December 17, 2025, in Salem, Oregon, surrounded by family and friends, after being hospitalized for a fall and experiencing a rapid decline, exacerbated by congestive heart failure. He was 82.
Charles Isaac Wallace, Jr., was born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 28, 1943, to Miriam (Shroyer) Wallace and Charles I. Wallace, Sr. The family moved several times in the Baltimore area, following his father’s church minister appointments, and landed in Burtonsville where Charlie attended Sherwood High School and played trombone in the school marching band.
As an undergraduate at Bowdoin College, Charlie majored in history, joined Theta Delta Chi, read the news on a local radio station, and participated, with his father, in the 1963 March on Washington. After graduating in 1965, Charlie enrolled at Yale Divinity School, drawn by the Social Gospel teaching that his father and maternal grandfather embraced as Methodist ministers. In the summer of 1966, inspired by the civil rights struggle unfolding in the South, as well as by legendary Yale chaplain William Sloane Coffin, Charlie drove to Albany, GA, with other divinity students from the Student Interracial Ministry to support voter registration efforts there. After graduating with a Master of Divinity in 1968, he earned a Ph.D. in the history of Christianity at Duke University, writing a dissertation on early Methodism.
At Duke, he met Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Sargent. They married in 1971 and lived in England, both pursuing doctoral research, while he also taught religious studies classes at Chislehurst School for Girls. Their daughter Hannah was born in Bromley, England, in 1973. (And it was on British TV that he first saw the British comedy troupe Monty Python, which would have a long-lasting influence on his irreverent and quirky sense of humor).
Upon their return to the U.S. in 1973, Charlie was ordained in the United Methodist Church and hired as minister of Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Finksburg, MD. After their second daughter, Molly, was born in Westminster, MD, in 1978, Charlie became a part-time chaplain and instructor at Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College and also taught at Wesley Theological Seminary, where his grandfather had previously taught.
The family lived in Westminster, down the street from Charlie’s parents, until 1985, when a job offer as chaplain at Willamette University in Salem, OR, took the family out west. The position enabled Charlie to serve campus community members of all faiths (and none) at an institution with Methodist roots, while also teaching religious studies courses. Charlie became a beloved force on the Willamette campus and beyond, cultivating spiritual and intellectual purpose, service, and activism among students, faculty, and staff. At Willamette, Charlie was instrumental in shaping Convocation—a weekly campus convening for lectures, concerts, and discussion—and was one of the founding members of the Salem Peace Lecture Committee. Under his leadership, a grant from the Lilly Endowment expanded the chaplaincy and made questions of meaning, purpose, and vocation central to the campus experience.
In his prayers, sermons, invocations, and benedictions over the years, Charlie combined humor with profound spiritual insight and socio-political critique, reminding those gathered of their responsibility to one another and to address the world’s injustices. He was a trusted counselor and celebrated teacher. Numerous students, colleagues, friends, and family members asked him to officiate at their weddings over the years—a task he happily accepted, including for many same-sex couples when such weddings were still rare. Along with various academic articles, he also published his long-time scholarly labor of love—Susanna Wesley: The Complete Writings—and, later, From A Mother’s Pen: Selections from the Spiritual Writing of Susanna Wesley.
In 1997, a few years after his first marriage ended, Charlie married fellow Methodist minister Priscilla (Dee-dee) Walters in Wellfleet, MA, bringing her two daughters into the family fold. Charlie and Dee-dee lived in Salem and spent almost 30 active years together, traveling frequently to see family in New England and Maryland. They were avid hikers and walkers, from the Grand Canyon to Salem’s Minto Brown Park. They often participated in climate, anti-war, and social justice protests at the State Capitol and regularly volunteered with organizations serving migrant families and homeless neighbors in their community.
Charlie retired from Willamette in 2012 after twenty-seven years of service.
Lovingly called “Granddad” by his grandkids, Charlie (and Dee-dee) frequently attended their school events, performances, and sports games. An unceasingly loyal Baltimore Orioles fan, he also caught the occasional Orioles-Mariners game up in Seattle.
Until the last few months of his life he was leading a class at First United Methodist Church in Salem: “Digging Deeper in Theology and Ethics.” His latest book, Praying with Charlie: 27 Years of Meditations, Prayers, and Benedictions (or How Monty Python Infiltrated Willamette University), was published in 2024.
Charlie was a devoted, loving, and endlessly supportive father, grandfather, husband, brother, son, and uncle. He is survived by his wife, Dee-dee Walters, his sister, Rebecca Wallace, and brother, James Wallace, daughters Hannah Wallace and Molly Wallace, step-daughters Liz Clark and Holly Pendleton, sons-in-law Don McIntosh, John Rogers, and Brent Pendleton, and grandkids Madeleine McIntosh, Joanna Wallace Rogers, and Wesley Wallace Rogers.