Charles Lockwood Gold

WEST CORNWALL — Charles Lockwood Gold died at home on Jan. 7, 2015.Born on May 2, 1936, in Torrington, he was the eldest son of Theodore Sedgwick Gold and Elizabeth Calhoun (Beers) Gold. He graduated from Mount Hermon School for Boys in 1953 and Yale University in 1957.Upon graduation, Charles was hired by International Business Machines Corporation, educating employees in various capacities for 34 years. One assignment was program director at IBM’s Systems Research Institute, the company’s graduate school in information technology; he helped institute a similar program in Geneva, Switzerland, for European employees. In the 1970s, as a staff assistant to the vice president of Engineering, Programming and Technology, Charles developed and led education sessions for senior executives and lawyers defending IBM in anti-trust cases. He also appeared as a technical expert witness for IBM in both New York and San Francisco federal courts. This culminated in an assignment to a secret four-person group attempting a settlement of the cases. Many felt this group laid the groundwork for the government’s ultimately dropping its case.During the 1980s, Charles developed and managed in-house quality standards for IBM’s own systems, improving certain company performance up to 60 percent. One result of this work was a computer program to measure Function Points; this measure became an industry standard. Charles participated in and served as secretary of the International Function Point Users Group and the International Software Benchmark Standards Group.During his career, he also taught at Pratt Institute and Manhattanville College in their graduate information technology programs. Upon retirement from IBM, Charles was an independent consultant in information technology for Ernst & Young.His lifelong passion, however, was the stewardship, with his late brother Ralph, of the family farm in West Cornwall, where he returned to live full-time in 1995. When the brothers sold development rights for a portion of the farm, they guaranteed that land would remain open. In Cornwall he served as treasurer, trustee, chair of the Building Committee, and Sunday School teacher of the United Church of Christ; treasurer and a fire policeman of the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department; president of the North Cornwall Cemetery Association; member of the Board of Assessment Appeals; trustee of the Marvelwood School; and member of the Library Building Committee. He was also Cornwall’s representative to and chair of the Finance Committee for the Torrington Area Health District. For 44 years, he led Memorial Day observances started by his great-grandfather at the North Cornwall Cemetery.He was an avid tennis player, vegetable gardener and supporter of UConn basketball.He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Barbara Alden (Morgan) Gold; his daughter, Virginia Gold, and her wife, Christina Danforth, of West Cornwall; his daughter, Elizabeth Sobek and her husband, Dane Sobek, of Bozeman, Mont.; a sister, Catee Hubbard of New London, N.H.; a sister-in-law, Ann Gold of West Cornwall; a brother-in-law, Hunt Williams of West Cornwall; a brother- and sister-in-law, Charles and Lynne Morgan of Alexandria, N.H.; seven grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews. Charles was predeceased by his parents; two sisters, Sarah and Rebecca; and his brother, Ralph.Contributions in his memory may be made to the United Church of Christ, Congregational, in Cornwall or the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department.A service in celebration of Charles’ life will be held at the North Cornwall Meeting House on Jan. 24 at 1 p.m. The Kenny Funeral Home in Sharon has charge of arrangements.