The Rev. Dr. Charles Sayre: Celebrating a centenarian's life of service and an enduring Pennington legacy
The Reverend Dr. Charles Sayre turned 100 this past April. We spoke with Dr. Sayre upon the occasion to learn more about a man who has dedicated his life to service and played a significant role in shaping the School that we know as Pennington today.
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t 100 years of age, the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Sayre is in good spirits and reflects with clarity on service, community, family, and faith—tenets to which he has dedicated his life. He takes this major milestone in stride and attributes his long life in part to eliminating stress where possible and having a purpose in his calling to serve others. When asked what he hopes to accomplish in his 101st year, he chuckles with authentic humility, “I am simply a minister. That’s all I aspire to at any time: being a good minister.” And that he is. Dr. Sayre, who lives in Haddonfield, NJ, served as the beloved senior minister at the United Methodist Church in the town for over twenty-five years and still regularly attends service. Dr. Sayre’s roots of doing good and serving through ministry run deep. In 1905, when The Pennington School was dedicated to educating Methodist ministers, the Reverend Woodburn J. Sayre, Charles’s father, graduated from the School and served as minister in Trenton, NJ. His father’s deep commitment to the faith started Dr. Sayre on a life’s journey to serve others with care, kindness, and respect, and he found his calling to ministry as a young man. Charles Sayre’s journey has significantly shaped The Pennington School as we know it today. Although he did not attend as a student, Dr. Sayre served as a member of Pennington’s Board of Trustees for twenty-six years in the critical decades of the 1980s and 1990s that catalyzed significant growth for the School. He fondly remembers his time on the Board and the friendships he made. Ever humble and grateful, Dr. Sayre says, “I feel very lucky to be part of a Board that had such a high caliber of knowledge, skill, and experience around the table.”
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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020
But what stands out clearly for Dr. Sayre as his most significant and meaningful work with Pennington came years before he joined the Board. While serving on the Methodist Conference Board of Education in the 1950s, Dr. Sayre was in a prime position to view the state of the School and saw that Pennington needed a course correction. He swiftly brought the matter to the attention of Bishop Fred Pierce Corson (formerly president of Dickinson College), who proceeded to play a pivotal role in advocating for the School. Dr. Sayre recounts how Corson swiftly reacted, calling a special Conference session in 1953 focused on Pennington’s needs, where he championed investment in the School’s future. These actions brought a host of changes to Pennington, including the appointment of Dr. Charles Smyth as headmaster in 1958, changes in the role of the Board of Trustees, focus on growing the School’s endowment, and other changes to ensure academic rigor and sound institutional management. Although he deflects all credit, without Dr. Sayre’s work to move the School forward as a priority for the Conference, Pennington would not be here as the School we know today. However, it is the present-day chapter of Dr. Sayre’s influence at Pennington that is most aligned with his deep passions for equality and civil rights. To honor his life of service and commitment to the School, the Charles A. Sayre Endowed Scholarship was created in 2005 to help deserving students of color have access to a Pennington education. Dr. Sayre has firsthand experience in fighting for racial equality. He served on the board of a
