Gib Charles
October 24, 1954 - August 14, 2021
Please note the updated date, time and location for Gib’s Celebration of Life (details below)
James Gibson Charles was born October 24th, 1954 in Normal, Illinois. Because several relatives before him had been named James, he always went by Gib. At the time of his birth, his mother, Ardith June (later the namesake for Gib's first racing boat), and his father, Hank, had three daughters and Hank was overjoyed to welcome a son to the family. Hank was an accomplished musician and voice professor and Gib inherited his father’s gift with—and love of—music. Hank started a boy choir in order to spend time with his son, and in addition to singing in his father’s choir, Gib performed in collegiate musicals and later sang with Fort Collins’s Choice City Singers as a soloist. His pure, sweet tenor was something to behold.
Setting out on his own at 18, Gib left his midwest home and moved to Fort Collins to attend CSU. The college track wasn’t a fit but Gib forged his own path quite successfully. After a season at CSU, Gib had the opportunity to work in Ketchikan, Alaska for the forest service. He developed his logging skills and returned to Fort Collins where his home was a Quonset hut on his truck while he continued to log and work at the Bike Broker. It was there that he acquired bicycle mechanic skills that were valuable far beyond his own bikes.
At 22, Gib started his landscape maintenance business with a $300 birthday check from his grandmother. Sandy was his first employee. Over the next 30 years, he built it into an award-winning, commercial landscape maintenance company. His eye for detail and fastidious business practices were critical to Greening Up’s success, but the respect he showed his employees and the lifelong relationships he built with them are the business’s true legacy.
As a way to counter the challenges of running a small business, Gib returned to a boyhood hobby and bought his first sailboat at age 30. He pleasure sailed for years until the racing bug hit, transforming sailing from a stress-relieving hobby into the lifeblood for his competitive nature. He met other sailors and discovered the Union Sailing Club outside of Longmont. From then on he was a dedicated racer, traveling around the country to race his boats in national competitions. He was an 8-time National Champion of his Mutineer class of boat and authored the "Mutineer Tuning Guide”, a sailing manual that contains everything you need to know to tune your Mutineer to perfection.
From a fellow sailor: "What astounds me is the effort he put into documenting the boat’s history and the best ways to rig and sail the boat. His 36-page Mutineer Tuning Guide, which he developed in 2004 and updated in 2007, is the go-to book for setting up your Mutt for racing. He would look at your Mutineer and casually say what looked good and what didn’t and how to fix what didn’t. He loved talking about them."
At 50, Gib sold his business and was able to fully immerse himself in his passion projects. He raced Mutineers and Buccaneers, taught sailing lessons, and fixed up used sailboats for resale. He became an avid cyclist, enjoying bike tours through Europe and Cuba, and teaching bike safety and maintenance through Bike Fort Collins and the Safe Routes to School programs throughout his 60s. A certified nordic ski instructor in his youth, Gib could often be found gliding across a snowy City Park Golf Course or ski racing at Snow Mountain Ranch. Throughout it all, teaching remained central to his passions. From skiing to pickleball to bicycle mechanics to sailing, he was patient, thorough, and a natural leader. Despite leaving us too young, it’s a blessing that he retired young and had nearly 15 years to teach, compete, and play outside.
Gib is survived by daughter Megan, son-in-law Dillon, granddaughter Emerson, and son Ian. He loved and supported his family profoundly, guiding his two children into adulthood with respect and skills for success in their lives. He was thrilled with their choices to stay in town and welcomed his granddaughter Emerson with glee.
Grief and loss and grace and change. And love and love and love.
This was our Gib. Windswept and boyishly handsome. Smitten with Sandy. Perpetually sun-kissed and bronze.
He loved food. He sang beautifully. He sailed with precision and soul.
He gave and he welcomed and he organized and he taught.
He was blonde and shirtless and free. Then desk-bound and over-burdened. Then he owned his time and aged in reverse until one errant cell went awry. Cancer cut down this big tree of a man, seemingly overnight.
But he’s still here.
In Ian’s gentleness and strong frame. In Megan’s blonde mane and her appetite for sweets. In the ball on Emerson’s nose and in the curve of a sail on Long Pond. In Sandy’s comfort and in the life—the home, the family, the community—they built together.
He's in the wind of the sails of the many he coached and the spokes of the bikes of middle school riders he educated. Tally Ho!
This wouldn’t be so hard if he hadn’t been such a good man. Solid and goofy and driven and sweet.
Goodbye, Gibby. You are missed.
Service
Saturday, October 9
2:00 PM
City Park (Shelter 7)
411 S Bryan Ave, Fort Collins, CO 80521
All are welcome. Please bring a memory to share and carpool or bike if possible. And remember to dress for the weather! The event is rain or shine.
Make a Donation
To honor Gib's legacy, charitable donations may be made in his name to Bike Fort Collins or to the Mutineer 15 Class Association.
