Charles Gary Schulz
May 15, 1932-Dec. 18, 2022
Los Altos, California

Charles (Charlie) Gary Schulz, 90, a long-time resident of Palo Alto, has passed away peacefully after months of declining health, with family with him in his final days.

Charlie was born in Brooklyn, NY to Arthur K.F. Schulz and Louise D. Hudson (Schulz), the youngest of four brothers, whose father was the youngest of five siblings. Growing up in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, he played street sports and learned tennis and golf from his father. He spent summers in Oshkosh, WI, home of his father’s family. At age 14 he started driving his father who became ill with Parkinson’s, on a Wisconsin driver’s license allowed at that age for farm vehicles.

Charlie attended Erasmus Hall High School, where he graduated first in his class with one of the highest four-year averages in the school’s history, won 22 of 122 medals and awards at commencement, and was the third of his brothers to be president of the student government.

Charlie then attended Cornell University on a Cornell National Scholarship, where he joined Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, the glee club, Air Force ROTC, and was sophomore student body president. He earned his BA in 1954 with Distinction and Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi. Charlie met his first wife Jinny at Cornell, and they married in 1954 during the summer while both were working at a resort in the Adirondacks. He then attended Harvard Law School for his JD (LLB) in 1957. During law school he was offered an appointment to the Foreign Service from his application during college, and was granted a deferment to finish law school, but decided not to accept the appointment to pursue a law career.

Charlie first saw California on a Cornell Glee Club tour around the US and Mexico, where he met up with his oldest brother Art who had settled in the Bay Area, and decided he liked it. After law school, with wife and newborn son Charles in a used station wagon, he made his way west, settling in San Francisco where he clerked two years for the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. He then joined a private practice in Palo Alto in 1959, which he eventually took over and continued for over 45 years, specializing in probate, estate planning, trusts, wills, and conservatorships, while occasionally serving as a judge pro tem and arbitrator in the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

During his time in practice in Palo Alto, he was elected a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), won multiple legal awards, served as Palo Alto Area Bar Association president, and taught courses for medical students on legal issues at Stanford Medical School, for paralegals at Santa Clara University, and for other lawyers at California Bar continuing education. He started a long-running probate breakfast club for area lawyers, meeting at the Stanford Golf Course and other local venues.

In the community, he helped start and was the first president of the Palo Alto Community Fund, served as advisory board chairman for the Mid-Peninsula YWCA, and was on the Palo Alto Community Drug Abuse Board for several years.

After a divorce, it was through singing that Charlie met his second wife Claire, whom he married in 1988 in Palo Alto. Continuing his college glee club interests, Charlie joined and, later with Claire, led the Palo Alto Madrigal Singers, a 50-year a capella Renaissance singing group, which sang for fun and performed occasionally at area events. With Claire he became active in the local Mensa community, and traveled widely to Europe, South America, and Antarctica.

An avid tennis player, he continued playing into his 70s despite two knee and one hip replacements, often pointing out that his hip was the same model that Jimmy Connors had.

Charlie was the family genealogist, collecting family histories, identifying old photos, and charting family trees, even researching immigration passenger lists and birth certificates. There was never a family gathering without a witty pun from the master punster. He taught his kids tennis, golf, and driving, and took many trips with them to Bay Area parks with his brother Art’s family, and to the Oregon coast to visit their grandparents.

Charlie was a life-long supporter of Cornell -- in gratitude for the scholarship support, opportunities, and experiences he enjoyed there -- and for many years ran the Peninsula Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network, to interview and promote Cornell with high school applicants. For his 80th birthday, his three children endowed the Charles G. Schulz ’54 Family Scholarship at Cornell.

In 2017, Charlie and Claire downsized and moved to the senior living community The Terraces at Los Altos, where Charlie received expert care and attention in his final months.

Charlie was preceded in death by his brothers, ex-wife Virginia (Jinny) B. Schulz, and daughter Virginia (Jincy) L. Knight. He is survived by his wife Claire E. Taylor, sons Charles A. Schulz of Campbell (Amy) and Edward M. Schulz of Napa (Shirleen Hall), grandson Matthew C. Schulz of Seattle, and nieces and a nephew in California, Connecticut, and British Columbia, Canada.

To view the online obituary with photos, visit https://tributes.com/obituary/show/Charles-Gary-Schulz-108549176.