Charles Arthur (“Chuck” to most) Rees died at the age of 86 on March 27, 2025 at his home in Columbia, Maryland. He had spent the previous weeks telling everyone how much he loved them and that he knew what came next for him was in the generous hands of the “Good Shepherd” that had upheld him his entire life.
Chuck was blessed with two long and loving marriages. He is survived by his devoted wife of 22 years, Paula Sutton Rees, his daughters, Emily Rees Kasradze of Otego, NY and Elizabeth Rees of Alexandria, VA, five grandchildren, Anna and Ellen Kasradze, and Soph, Dylan and Maya Rees-Hoofnagle, and his sister Anna Bell Rosene of Portland, OR. From the beginning of his marriage to Paula, he welcomed her children, Joe Sutton and Emily Sutton, and her grandson, John Simpkins, as part of his family. His first wife of 35 years, Patricia Stauffer Rees, preceded him in death.
Chuck was born on August 12, 1938 in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of four siblings to parents Helen Guyton Rees and William Adelbert Rees. He earned a B.S. in History from Portland State in 1961. He was planning to start seminary to become a priest in the Episcopal Church when he was drafted into the U.S. Army. While serving in Army Intelligence at Fort Meade from 1961 until 1964, Chuck earned his M.L.A. at Johns Hopkins University. Following his time in the Army, Chuck became an elementary teacher in San Jose, California, and then a team leader for the National Teacher Corps in Louisville, Kentucky.
There he realized that he was not called to be an elementary teacher after all. He transitioned into law, earning a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1970 and spending a few years as an associate at Piper & Marbury in Baltimore. While he worked primarily in corporate and securities law, what he enjoyed most was working on pro bono cases in the firm’s “poverty office.”
In 1973 he began teaching at the University of Baltimore School of Law and remained there as a beloved tenured professor until his retirement in 2009. During that time, he authored numerous articles on abortion, civil procedure, executive privilege and constitutional law, and was known for his exacting yet funny teaching of constitutional law and civil procedure.
For decades, Chuck was active in local politics in the planned community of Columbia, often as a voice of dissent pushing Columbia to live up to its ideals of diversity, inclusion, and democracy. He served on the Kings Contrivance Village Board and the Columbia Council, and was the President of Alliance for a Better Columbia. (His daughters fondly remember his campaigning door-to-door for “one-person-one-vote” and “home rule” in Columbia.)
Throughout his life, and especially in his retirement, Chuck enjoyed attending church and teaching Sunday school, supporting food banks, refugee ministries and other charities, visiting museums, traveling, reading and writing, and spending time with cherished friends and family. He will be remembered for his sense of humor, his love of meeting new people (there was no such thing as a stranger to Chuck!), his extraordinary collection of props for every occasion, and his employment of the Socratic method in all areas of his life.
A celebration of Chuck’s life will be held in June at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, Maryland. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Refugee Ministry at Christ Episcopal Church in Columbia, MD, in Chuck’s memory either by check to 6800 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia MD 21044 or online https://onrealm.org/christchurchcolumbia/-/form/give/now.
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