Vermont lost one of its most accomplished and compelling characters when Charlie Houston, 96, died on Sunday at his Ledge Road home in Burlington. A pioneer in Himalayan mountaineering, high-altitude medicine and international relations — he directed the Peace Corps in India — he was fully engaged in life until he left it. As recently as 2007, he was talking up universal health care on a Church Street soapbox.

I profiled him in a story for Seven Days about elder activists, and asked him to share a memorable fitness moment for our Health and Fitness issue in 2003.

I remember the first time he called, to invite me to lunch at his place. I arrived to find a charming old man, who was virtually blind, padding about a house filled with evidence of his adventures. With a little prompting, Houston would recount the stories himself: his near-death experience on K-2; the lab in which he experimented with human fitness at high altitudes; his efforts to launch a medical Peace Corps; his friendship with Phish keyboard player Page McConnell.

Houston never lost interest in others. At one point, he developed such a fan club of middle-aged women that it was dubbed “Charlie Angels.” Charlie’s with the real angels now.

Photo by Matthew Thorsen.

This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2009.

Paula Routly is publisher, editor-in-chief and cofounder of Seven Days. Her first glimpse of Vermont from the Adirondacks led her to Middlebury College for a closer look. After graduation, in 1983 she moved to Burlington and worked for the Flynn, the Vanguard Press, the Burlington Free Press and Vermont Times – in that order. In 1995, she and Pamela Polston started Seven Days newspaper. Routly ran the business and built the news side of the operation, which she edited for years. She has spearheaded...

One reply on “Charlie’s With the Angels”

  1. Charlie Houston’s passing deserves mention. I got to observe him when I worked in various public health and policy settings. At the time, I was unaware of his mountaineering background, but I was impressed by his commitment to the justice and humanity of a comprehensive health care system. He was a gentleman of gumption, grit, caring and compassion. He certainly did not “go gently into that good night.”

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