CHARLES D. (CHARLIE) HOTCHKISS

Charles Dennison Hotchkiss died suddenly on Monday, February 6, after a long and interesting life. He graduated from Elder High School and the University of Cincinnati, was a teacher at Elder, and later worked in advertising and customer service. He was also a playwright, photographer, and theatre director. Charlie wrote and directed plays at Elder, for the Avilians theatre group at St. Michael’s Palace, and for the Sunset Players at Dunham Recreation Center.

Though Charlie lived a full and intriguing life, rich in experiences and matter of the mind, material things did not take center stage. As Shakespeare said, “Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.” He left the world with empty coffers, and therefore we are turning to his friends for help with his modest funeral arrangements with this GoFundMe appeal.

“I count myself in nothing else so happy / As in a soul rememb’ring my good friends,” another quotation from Shakespeare, describes Charlie’s propensity for acquiring acquaintances who became new friends everywhere he went. From the Surf Club lounge at Western Bowl to his teaching cohort to Switzerland and other corners of the world, every experience and place he visited added to his circle of friends. He bowled with the Smothers Brothers, was a late-night telephone confidant of the author Kurt Vonnegut, and published cartoonist Jim Borgman’s early work in an Elder publication called The Giraffe. He was a born storyteller, co-founded the President Garfield Memorial Folk Festival, and was a guiding light of the Reformed Druids movement, among many other diverse interests over the course of his life.

Born and raised in Price Hill by his parents, Bud and Alice Hotchkiss, Charlie was predeceased by his mother and father and his brother Roy. For the last 30 years, Charlie lived on the banks of the Ohio River in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. He is survived by nieces Julie, Valerie, and Amy, sister-in-law Gini, friend Bill Boback, and many other friends, cousins, and great-nieces and nephews.

There will be a memorial picnic for Charlie Hotchkiss on Sunday, April 23, 1:00 p.m. at 10870 Lower River Road, Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, in the south forty overlooking the river. After a short time for remembering him, we'll have jambalaya and more individual reminisces. If you would like to bring something to share--either something to say, a potluck dish, or even a play program or poster, we will welcome it, but you absolutely do not have to; we only ask for your presence to send Charlie off to Fiddler's Green or wherever on Shakespeare's birthday (and the day before Charlie's birthday). Oh, you might bring a folding chair for yourself. It will be outside so keep your fingers crossed for good weather, or if there is a real storm.