Charlie Boyle was the golden boy — blond, blue-eyed, talented, artistic and a dreamer, said his sister Edith Jones.
But after serving in Vietnam, he turned to drugs and alcohol to “numb the pain and quiet the nightmares,” said Rich ard Bell, director of the St. Joseph Veterans Home, where Boyle lived.
“The horrible things he saw were too much for him,” said his sister. “He was totally nonaggressive.”
Boyle spent the next 30 years in and out of homeless shelters.
But about four years before he died of lung cancer May 18 at age 56, he had gotten clean and sober and was working at Samaritan House, a homeless shelter in downtown Denver.
He knew months ago that he was dying and told friends he wanted his funeral to be a “white-tie event,” so they found a white tie for him to wear with his customary jeans, denim jacket, sandals and Led Zeppelin belt buckle. Some in the crowd also wore jeans and white ties.
It might have been only the second time Boyle had been in a tie, the other being at his first communion, said Jones, of Spokane, Wash.
She heard from her brother only sporadically and was relieved to know that he was among friends during his last months.
“I was basically afraid someone would call and tell me they had found his body in a box under a bridge,” Jones said.
In the past few years, “I think Charlie thought, ‘I’m going nowhere fast,’ and on his own initiative” he got off drugs and alcohol, said Geoffrey Bennett, a Samaritan House vice president.
He first was a guest at Samaritan and eventually worked several jobs there.
Staff members said he was a great help.
“He was motivated because he had found some value in his life” by helping others, said Katherine Parks, assistant operations supervisor. “He was so thankful (to feel needed) that he was anxious to get up each morning.”
He was diligent about helping people into the shelter and helping them get the services and benefits they were entitled to. “He made sure no woman ever slept on the street,” Parks said.
“He was so kind and gentle with people,” said the Rev. Michael Suchnicki, Samaritan chaplain.
Charles Maurice Boyle Jr. was born Oct. 20, 1952, in Santa Paula, Calif. He married and had a daughter.
He worked as a printer and graphic artist. He was artistic in childhood, first drawing birds, trees, the ocean and plants with crayons.
He liked to sing and play the guitar, and during his last years, he had saved enough money to buy a guitar.
He worked at Samaritan until 10 weeks before his death.
In addition to his sister, he is survived by his mother, JoAnn Pierce of Las Vegas; his half-sister, Evelyn Eccleston of Staten Island, N.Y.; a stepbrother, Jerry Pierce of Tulsa, Okla.; his ex-wife, Mary Arellano, and their daughter, Kim Arellano; and his grandson, Charles Boyle III.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
