Charles “Charlie” N. Stolper ’75

Charles “Charlie” N. Stolper ’75 passed away on September 24, 2025. Charlie’s classmate, Brian Steinbach, shared this memoriam:

“Charlie was the first classmate I met when we both ended up in the same suite at Lawn Avenue (as it was then called). Notably, all five of us from that suite attended the 50th Reunion—Charlie, me, Jeff Cox, Phil Swoboda, and Dave Rosenblum. Charlie and I ended up being suite, or roommates, for four years—another year at Lawn Avenue and then two years at Delta Tau. We had many adventures in those years, including a cross-country trip after freshman year that featured a stop at Dave’s in Portland; a 10-week European trip the next summer (memorably, we almost missed our flight because we went to a JFK Airport outside viewing area to have a last joint before the trip and returned to the gate to discover almost everyone had boarded a bus to the plane; fortunately gate personnel knew we were missing and drove us out to the plane). We drove to concerts as far afield as Waterbury (the Dead, along with Cindy Ulman and Martha (Faller) Brown, as well as Santana), NYC (Hot Tuna), and Providence (George Harrison and Ravi Shankar); and other road trips. We did lots of listening to loud music, and he brought me into DJing at WESU. We celebrated Charlie’s 21st birthday in the long tunnel under Foss Hill (with help from Cindy and Brad Kosiba). I spent one Thanksgiving with him and his mother and sister (and David Leisner) at a ski resort in Vermont. Somehow, during those years he managed to excel at CSS. After graduation, we stayed in touch, visiting in Charlottesville (when I was at UVA law), NYC (where he first worked), Boston (when he was at HBS, again excelling, and I was in Providence), NYC again (where he achieved his dream of being an investment banker by working for Kidder, and met his future wife, Christy), Princeton (where they lived for a while), Concord, Massachusetts, Chicago, and D.C. One D.C. visit involved his younger brother, who had just turned 21, drinking us both under the table. There was a ski trip to New Mexico where we stayed with Christy’s aunt and uncle at Los Alamos and inadvertently dissed them by traveling to ski at Taos each day. Fortunately, they didn’t hold it against him when he married Christy. I attended his wedding and he my first wedding, and I was his son Chad’s godfather. We exchanged visits to Evanston and Concord for our respective 40th birthday parties. He talked me into preparing the music CDs for our 35th Reunion. We did not see each as much after that, other than at Wes reunions, but we stayed in touch, and I was very glad to have a chance to talk to him at Reunion and to join the well-deserved standing ovation he received on arrival for our class picture. Charlie leaves behind the wonderful Christy, his daughter, Tory, and son-in-law, Jackson, his son, Chad, and daughter-in-law, Lydia, and his grandson, Tucker.”

As Dave Rosenblum said, “Even as he was physically debilitated by illness, Charlie remained engaged, including in fundraising for Wesleyan. He offered us all a lesson in courage and grace through his determination to attend our 50th.” Charlie departed with Wesleyan in his ears, as Tory invited close friends to send voice messages of love and support that she played for him in his last hours. He was deeply loyal to Wesleyan, so if you feel inspired, make a gift in his memory to Wesleyan’s Financial Aid and Access Fund. His family will host a memorial celebration to honor Charlie in Manhattan on May 23, 2026.