The Charlie Burchard Memorial Trust was established by Declaration of Trust on December 8, 1988, after Charlie – our son, brother and friend – passed away on a beautiful Vermont summer weekend in 1988. At the time of his death Charlie was surrounded by friends, who had gathered that weekend at his invitation to camp out at his parents’ home on Killarney Drive and attend the then-annual Reggae Festival held on Saturday, July 30th, at North Beach, on the Burlington Waterfront. The following day, Charlie, his friends, and a few members of his family were diving into Lake Champlain off the Rock at the end of Rock Point when Charlie’s heart went into fibrillation and he died.
Charlie led a remarkable life, and left a warm and lasting impression on all who knew him. He was an All-American at Burlington High School (where he captained the football, hockey and baseball teams), co-captain of the Vermont Shrine football team, Vermont’s representative to the U.S. Olympic Training Festival (in two sports, hockey and baseball), and a member of the varsity hockey and football teams at Middlebury College – where he continued to compete even after being forced to sit out part of his sophomore year when his heart condition was initially diagnosed, and even though he was required to take beta blockers to keep his heart rate down during his junior and senior years. But as remarkable as his athletic accomplishments were, they paled in comparison to what he was able to accomplish as a human being. He had a warm sense of humor, a sense of humility, and a genuine interest in other people that earned him lasting friendship and respect from everyone he met, across all groups and classes of people.
Charlie Burchard Memorial Trust Fund 