Alex
Bella
Guido
Cade
Chuck
la mia famiglia
By Guido Baldecchi, Father of Chuck Baldecchi
If there is one equation I like most, it is Baldecchi = Family. Charles grew up with
three older siblings and a village of cousins. All were close, spent summers
and holidays together at the family vacation home in Sherwood Forest on
the Severn River in Maryland. Here, a summer camp of many generations
where all youngsters could take part and excel, was the activity.
We spent the school year at the family home in
Henderson, North Carolina, where I worked in the
family textile business. All friends and family were
welcome in our home there, and at one time or
another, all came.
Life changed when Charles’s mother died.
His siblings were away in North Carolina colleges.
He was young and alone. There was no other option
but to send him to boarding school. As it happened,
later I would also leave Henderson.
Episcopal High School in Virginia had always been
spoken of highly as a place of nurturing kindness, where
the character of the boy was more important than his
SAT score. Charles found a new family there, with
a different environment, one that gently demanded
discipline with honor and a passion to excel. With new
boys, he was able to use the bonding skills that had
Above: The Baldecchi family,
clockwise from front center;
Mrs. Stu Baldecchi, Chuck,
Jay, Mr. Guido Baldecchi,
Danny, Pam
4
developed naturally. His strong sense of compassion was
encouraged with success in leadership.
Later, he completed four years at Denison
University in Ohio. He then attended St. John’s
College in Annapolis, on the Severn River, close to
the summer home. At St. John’s, the curriculum was
the 200 Great Books of western civilization. This was
humanism. Where you learned “not the best answer,
but the better questions.”
His first teaching assignment was at the Asheville
School in North Carolina. Here he met the lovely
Erin Garden, who taught and lived in Asheville.
Was it love at first sight? Well, the “better question”
was asking Erin Garden to marry him. Maybe that
became the transition from Charles to Chuck.
Charles’s instinct for education took him to where
he is now, The Lexington School, and that was a fine