Charles L. Gauvin

ATHOL - Charles L. Gauvin, of Athol, died of cancer at the age of 91 on September 1, a week after the death of his beloved wife, Rita. They had been married more than 70 years.                 Charlie was the fifth of the seven children of Joseph Marie Gauvin and his wife Alma, nee Chiasson. He learned English after his family moved to Athol in 1928 from Petite-Lameque on Shippegan Island off the north coast of New Brunswick, Canada.                As a young man, Charlie worked at several jobs such as clearing trees from woods that became part of the Quabbin Reservoir and from roads blocked by the Hurricane of 1938. When the outbreak of World War II in Europe brought more business to the Union Twist Drill Company, he went to work there.   He married Rita M. Boudreau, who’d been born in Athol but raised mostly in New York’s Adirondacks until her family returned to Massachusetts.                 In 1944 Charlie joined the Navy. Among other duties, he helped sail the first diesel-powered yard tug from New York Harbor to Florida, where he participated in rescue missions. He also volunteered to dive and cut a steel cable that had fouled the propeller of another vessel, not realizing that there were alligators nearby.                After the war there was less work at “the Twist”, so Charlie taught himself to do house construction. He built the home his family lived in since the fifties. When the machine tool business picked up, he returned to UTD and for decades was an innovative and highly productive form grinder. For years before he retired he was foreman of that department.                 Charlie was friendly, gregarious person, devoted to his family. As a young man he was a very skillful pool player. He was an avid cribbage player who enjoyed playing over the years with his grandsons. He was a creative woodworker. He made beautiful wooden furniture as well as smaller projects. He helped lead the local Columbian Squires at Our Lady Immaculate Church in Athol, where he was a member of the Knights of Columbus. He was a life member of the Elks and a life member of the American Legion.               Only one of Charlie’s siblings is still living, Jeanne d’Arc “Jeanne” St. John of New York state. His brothers, Joseph Lawrence and Jean Albine “Benny” and sisters Dorida M. “Doris” Boudreau, Marie A. “Cecile” Vaillencourt and Ludovine M. “Vivian” Gibbs, have passed away. His son, Ronald, died in 2006.      Charlie is survived by his daughter, Barbara, who lives in Maynard with her husband, Stephen; grandsons Clement and Adam Wagner of Maynard and Watertown respectively; his daughter-in-law Susan Gauvin of Greenfield; granddaughter Lisa Gauvin Poole of England; great-grandchildren Spencer and Samantha Poole; and several nieces, nephews and many cousins.                A funeral Mass for Charlie and his wife, Rita, will be held on Thursday, September 29, 2011 at Our Lady Immaculate Church in Athol.  A calling hour will be held on Thursday, September 29, 2011 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Fiske-Murphy & Mack Funeral Home, 110 New Athol Road, Orange.  Burial in Gethsemane Cemetery, Athol, will be held at a later date.      In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Church of Our Lady Immaculate in Athol, where they were lifelong members, or to the non-profit Baldwinville Nursing Home, which gave both of them excellent care, at 51 Hospital Road, P. O Box, 24, Baldwinville, MA 01436-1247. $(document).ready(function(){ });