Community honors Chuck Worrell, longtime coach and mentor

Chuck Worrell, longtime Woodstock coach, mentor and educator, passed away on June 21. Hundreds of community members gathered on Saturday to pay tribute to him. (Photo Provided)

Instilling a good work ethic and being selfless were themes throughout the life of Charles “Chuck” William Worrell Jr. 

Whether he was coaching football, teaching driver’s education, or supporting the arts, Chuck Worrell touched many lives in the Woodstock area and beyond, with his big heart and unforgettable wit and humor. That impact was greatly represented on Saturday, when hundreds of friends, family and community members gathered to pay tribute to Coach Worrell, who passed away on June 21 at age 76. 

Saturday’s crowd gathered at James T. McLaughlin Athletic Field, where head coach McLaughlin and Worrell spent many years coaching Woodstock Union High School football teams and winning multiple state championships. They coached together for nearly three decades, retiring from those roles together in 2013.

McLaughlin, “Coach Mac”, told the crowd Worrell would often help with things he knew McLaughlin would have trouble with, but without telling him so. Behind it all, was Worrell’s desire to help others do well. 

“All the good things that happened on this field — and there’ve been a lot of good things that happened on this field over the years — none of them would have happened without Chuck,” McLaughlin said. 

Worrell’s son, Ramsey, has been head coach of the WUHS Football Team for about 9 years, and has been on the coaching staff for 25 years. He loved seeing Coach Mac and his dad work together, whether it was through the headset during games, at scouting meetings, or talking strategy. 

“Those are the moments, more than anything, that I’ll take away,” Ramsey said in an interview. “They had a special bond, the two of them, a pretty special yin-to-yang kind of thing, and I had a front-row seat to it.” 

Ramsey said his dad was great at encouraging kids to participate in the football program who never thought they could, whether it was on the field, or not. 

“They had a role, and they became a part of a team and a family,” Ramsey said. “That’s kind of how we taught things: a brotherhood. He used to love to say, ‘Eleven brothers.’”

Coach Worrell in the press box during a Woodstock football game. (Photo Provided)

Chuck Worrell, born and raised in Texas, played football and baseball growing up, and went on to coach both sports. He and his wife, Harriet, had long careers as educators, including as English teachers, and each had a great love of music and the arts. When they moved to Vermont in 1986, Harriet became the director of the Yoh Theatre Players at WUHS. Chuck coached football with Coach Mac, and was a driver’s education teacher at Woodstock for 28 years. At the same time, he was one of the Yoh Theatre program’s most avid supporters, joining Harriet and the students on many theater trips.

Chuck and Harriet’s four children — Perrin, Deacon, Temple and Ramsey — all graduated from WUHS. Perrin, who took part in theater programs from sixth grade on, said she got driver’s ed instruction from her dad like many other kids, but not based out of the classroom. Oftentimes, she and several theater friends who needed driving hours would drive with Chuck to theater events out of town. 

“We would drive to the theater competitions, and that’s how we would get in some of our driving time,” Perrin said in an interview this week. 

She said many of the memories people have shared in recent days have been about her father’s ability to find humor in everything — including countless classic one-liners. That humor showed up at theater competitions as well, Perrin recalled.

“End of every festival, he would do parodies of the different shows at the very end, and they were hysterical, people loved them,” she said. 

In fact, in the Yoh Theatre program, a number of the football players got roles on the stage, or behind the scenes. At Saturday’s gathering, Jordan Larson, who used to coach football at WUHS with Ramsey, remembered his days on the team, where they were “challenged to be more, and to do more.”

“It is really the only place where you can be stabbed on a Wednesday night dress rehearsal of Hamlet, and be expected to go to battle on the gridiron by donning the green and white on a Saturday afternoon,” he recalled. 

Chuck Worrell’s focus on helping others was something he instilled in the athletes. Aside from the many hours spent on the field, he would arrange community service visits for the players to the Children’s Hospital (at Dartmouth).

“Coach was a visionary, and in my view an accepting adult, who championed numerous causes and provided opportunities for members of the student body to be part of a team, who might not otherwise have had that opportunity,” Larson said.

Chuck Worrell, enjoying his recumbent bicycle. (Photo Provided)

That approach to life continued into his later years, when Worrell became passionate about his recumbent bike, which he’d often ride along Route 4 from his home in Bridgewater. For five years, he took the bike back to Texas to ride in the MS 150, a two-day charity bike race from Houston to Austin. 

On Saturday, multiple speakers spoke of the biggest part of Worrell’s life: family. Foundational to that, were his 47 years of marriage to Harriet. 

“It is impossible to talk about Chuck without talking about Harriet,” said Michael Schroeder, Worrell’s best friend. “Chuck and Harriet, Harriet and Chuck — an incredible partnership.”

Gwen Groff, pastor of Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater, delivered the eulogy on Saturday, noting Chuck’s great care for others, and how his family has cared for him and Harriet.

“When I look at the way this family loves, I know that Chuck lives on. He lives on in the people he parented, the people he coached, the people he taught, friends he loved,” she said. “May we carry him joyfully with us, in our hearts.”

— Gareth Henderson