IRVINGTON—The Right Reverend Gordon T. Charlton Jr. died Saturday, February 1, 2020, at Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury in Irvington.
He was born in 1923 in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Gordon T. Charlton Sr. and Enid Jones Charlton. Educated in Alamo Heights public schools he graduated from the University of Texas in Austin in 1944 with a bachelor’s and a commission as ensign in the United States Navy. He served three years largely aboard Submarine Chasers in the Pacific Theater.
After discharge he attended Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria. After graduation, ordination and marriage to Landon Cutler Crump of Hopewell, he served parishes in Houston, Texas; Fairbanks, Alaska; Mexico City, Mexico, and Wilmington, Del., before returning to Virginia Seminary as a member of the faculty.
In 1973, he became dean and president of the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and nine years later was elected Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Texas. He retired in 1989 and moved with his wife to North Carolina where he worked part time as secretary of the Episcopal Church’s General Board of Examining Chaplains administering the National General Ordination Exam.
Mrs. Charlton died in 1996 and Bishop Charlton lived in Williamsburg for several years before moving to Rappahannock Westminster-Canterbury in Irvington.
Bishop Charlton, lovingly known in the family as El Viejo (a term of endearment in Mexico) and Great Granddaddy, is survived by his sister, Meredith Moore of Austin; children, Virginia Charlton Jardim (Philip) of Berkeley, Calif., David H. Charlton (Wendy) of White Stone, Duncan Charlton (Lee) of Austin, and his dear companion Milena Van Sant of Irvington.
His grandchildren are Jesse Jardim (Elizabeth) of Alexandria, Juliette Jardim of Chicago, Ill., Jonathan Jardim of San Francisco, Calif., Wesley Charlton (Charlotte) of White Stone, Connor Charlton, (Lucie) of Austin, Rian Craypo (Sean) of Houston, Casey Charlton (Jenny) of Seattle, Wash., and Ben Charlton (Jessica) of Austin. His great-grandchildren are Julian and Thomas Jardim, Nora, Isaac and Penn Charlton, Amelia Jane, Isaiah and Emmeline Craypo, Elijah and Solomon Charlton, and Julia and Lucy Charlton.
Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, February 25, at Grace Episcopal Church, Kilmarnock.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, or the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.
