Charles Gordon Beyer was born in New York City on August 2, 1967 and died suddenly on March 20, 2021. The time spent in between was, to borrow one of his favorite words, curious.

For Charles, the reality of a situation was never as interesting as the perspective with which he saw it. So, spelling out his educational and career milestones seems more perfunctory than elucidating (but this is an obituary). He was raised in New Canaan, CT, graduated from Berkshire School in 1986, and earned his BA and MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. He was an artist of immense talent and creativity and was hired throughout his life for his style and exquisite taste.

Charles was a traveling salon, his own Algonquin Round Table, collecting persons of interest wherever he was; be it Boston, New York, or Virginian horse country, he was a fascination. If you saw him, you needed to know him, if you knew him, you wanted to be in his company. He was the pied piper for anyone with something interesting to add. Charles was simultaneously a magnet for talent and a muse, always attracting and inspiring phenomenal artists, designers, and writers and giving a part of himself to make them better. That he was the most talented person they had ever encountered was ironically the secret known to everyone but him.

He was his art. His sense of fashion was so distinct that each outfit was essentially a gallery-worthy installation. He designed and made clothing from non-traditional materials often utilizing photographs, shipping envelopes, champagne caps, magazine pages, Christmas tree ornaments, and other salvaged items to create show stopping evening wear and jewelry for his sister, Allyne, and close friend, EV Day. He was fond of reading Dorothy Parker, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, and E.L. Doctorow then resurrecting long forgotten idioms from those pages in conversation as casually tossed-off phrases.

Charles is survived by his sister, Allyne Beyer, nephews, Henry and William LeFevre of Duxbury, MA, stepmother, Cynthia Darlington Beyer of Marshall, VA, and a parade of friends and fans worldwide. He will be missed immeasurably.

If you would like to give a remembrance in Charles' name, please donate to the Middleburg Humane Foundation at 504.364.3272, middleburghumane.org or Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1.800.273.8255, suicidepreventionlifeline.org