Obituary of Charles Benson Childs

Charles Benson Childs, age 89, died at First Health Hospice Home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, on December 17, 2019. 

The son of Robert Taylor Childs and Sarah Elizabeth Sherrill, he was born in Harriman, Tennessee, and grew up in High Point, North Carolina.  He was preceded in death by seven older sisters.

He attended High Point College and Salem College before completing his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he also completed his M.S.  He did further graduate work in physics at the University of Illinois. 

He was employed by NASA in Washington, DC before returning to Chapel Hill where he was a research associate in the Department  of Physics until his retirement.  He also did research on silver halide crystals in laboratories in France and Italy among other places. 

He lived in Chapel Hill on Coeur du Bois Lane until he moved to Pine Knoll at St. Joseph in the Pines. 

He is survived by Dr. John Presley, his companion and friend of fifty years, as well as other relatives and friends, including Dr. Barbara James of Southern Pines, Jane Dodson of Durham, and Dr. Jim Massey of Moncure.

A requiem mass will be held in the chapel at Pine Knoll in Southern Pines on January 10, 2020 at      11:00 a.m.  His ashes will be placed in the columbarium at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on K Street in Washington, DC. 

Walker's Funeral Home of Chapel Hill is assisting the Childs family.