Charles N. Seashore
Charles N. Seashore, 80, died on Jan. 20, 2013, surrounded by his family at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, Calif.
He was born June 19, 1932 to Robert and Marjorie Seashore in Eugene, Ore., raised in Wilmette, Ill., and graduated from New Trier High School and University of Colorado. In 1961, he earned a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan.
In 1957, Charlie went to Bethel, Maine, as a research assistant at the National Training Laboratories (NTL) Institute. There, he fell in love with Bethel, group dynamics, and Edie Whitfield. Charlie and Edie married in 1961. He held faculty positions at Fielding Graduate University, American University/NTL Masters Program in Organization Development, the Washington School of Psychiatry, and Johns Hopkins University. He worked as an executive coach and an organizational consultant for over 40 years in Washington, D.C. He also served as president of the Lewin Institute for Social Change, Action and Research.
Charlie was best known for his outstanding sense of humor and creativity, his love of people, and his ability to create a community out of any gathering. He recently wrote a six-word memoir: “Born to fix – people, things, situations.” Among his many talents were juggling, accordion playing, unicycle commuting and becoming an Eagle Scout.
Charlie is survived by his wife and treasured collaborator of 55 years, Edie Seashore; his daughters, Becky (May) and Kim (Seashore) and their husbands CJ May and Jeff Hobson; his brother and sister, Dick and Marjorie Seashore; and his grandchildren Natalie, Nick, and Ella May and Benjamin and Nathan Seashore Hobson. He will be remembered and missed by his many graduate students, colleagues, and friends around the world.
Donations in Charlie's memory can be made to scholarship funds in his name at Fielding Graduate University or NTL Institute.
Memorial services will be held late February in Berkeley, Calif.; early March in Washington, D.C.; and July in Bethel, Maine, where his remains will be laid to rest.