Dushy S. Perera
Jerry ‘Anna’ to his relations, Sir to his numerous subordinates and Charles to his friends, passed away suddenly whilst playing tennis (a sport close to his heart) partnering his son Pravin, at the Annual Darrawela Club Tennis Meet on 15th March, 1997.
He once told a friend that he would like to die playing tennis and also mentioned to me that he would like to see a Trogon (a rare endemic Ceylon bird) before he dies. It was only on the last Poya that Charles along with his good friend Doca drove into the Peak wilderness and had a glimpse of this endemic bird. So, in a sense, his wishes had been fulfilled.
Charles, amongst a host of other professional interests, was an authority on Sri Lankan birds. Driving upto and from Dickoya, he made it a point to detour into the Kiriwaneliya Peak wilderness craving to see bird life. The numerous birds he spotted on these trips were enthusiastically narrated to us on the tennis Court.
Charles was a true working planter, and one of the few agricultural graduates in the profession. He started his career in the noble profession of teaching, and was a teacher at St. Thomas’s College, Mount Lavinia. Before long he was hand picked by the prestigious company James Finlay’s as a ‘creeper’. His professional approach to planting hastened his promotion and he soon became a respected personality in planting circles.
Charles introduced Rotary to Hatton/Dickoya and was affectionately referred to as the ‘God Father of Rotary’. His vision of Rotary was service and only service.
That was a clear reflection of his character. Furthermore, ‘Abraham Lincoln’s words are reminiscent of Charles’s concept of Rotary “With malice towards none, with charity to all, with firmness in the right, as God has given us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in”.
“We had many a rally and plenty of jokes on the tennis court. His death came suddenly to all of us, and perhaps, we can come to terms with it in these words, “Weeping” may endure for a night. But joy commeth in the morning”. Mark Anthony’s eulogy is an appropriate epitaph to describe Charles, “His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world.” ‘This was a Man’.
