Charlie Kerzner, who enrolled at the College in the fall of 2018, died on Jan. 26 at the age of 23. Charlie is remembered at the College as a warm, welcoming, and talented community member.
Charlie grew up in Sheffield, Mass., and developed a passion for the performing arts early in their life. They attended Mt. Everett Regional School, where they performed in Shakespeare plays, sang in a choir, played the trombone, and competed on the wrestling team.
After arriving at the College in 2018, they continued acting and performing, participating in Treestyle Improv Comedy and many theatre productions. Charlie acted in Our Time: A Play about Williams, Studio ’62’s 2019 project Outer Space, Outer Time, and the Cap & Bells productions The Importance of Being Earnest and Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, among others.
In addition to theatre and art, Charlie loved food, languages, and teaching. Through the Hopkins Forest Educators program, they taught natural history and science to local kindergarten through sixth grade students. Before they passed away, Charlie planned to re-enroll at the College and become a high school English teacher.
They worked at many farmers markets and farms in and around the Berkshires, including Moon in the Pond Farm in their hometown, Cricket Creek Farm in Williamstown, and Earth Sky Time Community Farm in Manchester, Vt. Charlie began working as a cheesemaking apprentice at Cricket Creek Farm in March 2021, where they met their partner, Julia Cassell ’22.
“They were an incredible worker and always worked so hard at Cricket Creek,” Cassell wrote to the Record. “They had a very strong sense of duty to Damion, the head cheese maker, and to their fellow apprentices.”
Cassell shared that she, friends, and relatives cherished Charlie’s kindness and attentiveness. “Charlie was the one who got us through hard times and an endlessly loyal and warm friend,” she wrote. “Whenever I’ve gotten good or bad news, I always first thought of Charlie to share it with.”
Cassell added that Charlie was very creative, crafty, and humorous — a sentiment shared by many of their professors and fellow students. Charlie was an avid reader with a strong enthusiasm and wit for board games, especially Settlers of Catan and Bananagrams. “They loved so many kinds of art and language, they would make up words … and weird little songs,” Cassell told the Record.
Charlie was a comparative literature major, although they were also interested in the Russian language and major. They took many courses in the department, including RUSS 101: “Elementary Russian I” with Professor of Russian Julie Cassiday.
“They were an energetic and fun-loving student of Russian, and Charlie’s interest and talent for the theatre were evident from the very first day of the course,” Cassiday wrote to the Record. “I vividly remember the smile on Charlie’s face at the start of each class, as well as the friendships they forged with others in RUSS 101 over the course of the semester.”
Professor of Russian Janneke van de Stadt also described Charlie’s innovative, kind, and open-minded presence, in and out of the classroom. “I had the pleasure of working with Charlie,” she wrote. “The language classroom involves a good dose of performance and ‘being on stage,’ and Charlie, being the thespian they were, was always game for play and make-believe, no matter what the task at hand might have been. This willingness to take risks, on their own and with their fellow language-learners, and the genuine kindness that radiated from Charlie when they engaged with you, made them a central member of the cohort.”
During their time at the College, Charlie was a Junior Advisor to the Class of 2024 for the Mission Park entry Mills-Dennett 4. Their former first-years remember their friendliness and their constant work to create a playful and open space for the students. “They were a very calming presence, which was really helpful during COVID,” Syl Foisy ’24 said. “One of my earliest memories at Williams is playing frisbee. I remember one of my friends hit them in the leg with the frisbee, and they made dramatic falling gestures… They were a really nice and goofy person.”
“They always had a smile on their face and were super welcoming,” said Jakin Miller ’24, another member of the entry. “Even though we were kind of miserable and locked in our rooms, they were always fun and enthusiastic.”
Charlie is survived by two sisters and one brother. Their friends and family will hold a memorial service to celebrate Charlie’s life and memory in June at Earth Sky Time Community Farm in Manchester, Vt.
