Charles H. Ramsey

Charles Hilman “Skip” Ramsey, born October 15, 1953 to Casto and Jane; brother, dad, granddad, Uncle “Dipper”, died on Friday, January 31, 2025, at his home in ‘Laureldale’, near Damascus, VA.

Almost the entirety of his 71 years was spent in the place he knew and loved as home: the mountains of Appalachia. He was a man who had come to understand that the richness of the world may be experienced as fully right outside one’s front door as it may in all the four corners of the Earth. He belonged, he liked to say, to ‘The Church of the Deep Woods’, whose members recognize each other not with righteous fanfare, but with quiet humility.

Quality mattered more than quantity, whether in material goods or friends. The solid heft, tight weave, and unique grains he looked for in leather and woodwork might be said to stand for qualities in people he most loved and admired. Among those adults who feel themselves privileged to have been recognized by him are sister, Mary; brother-in-law, Lew; stepdaughter, Layla; niece, Anna and her husband, Seamus; cousins, Martha, Jim, Karla, Steve; as well as a treasury of friends, to name a few: Ron Pennington, Jim White, Bob Bundy, Randy Carmack, Jan Hortenstein, Ron Tallman, and Rob Goldsmith.

Of children, he never met one he didn’t like. Izabella, Solana, Nyellie, Maddie, Holden, Maddox, all have known the warmth of his affection, his playful wit, his generous heart and hand. A last, Tyr, is too young to have known the man, and will have to make do with the legend.

In the Spring, dozens of hummingbirds will return to his Laureldale home. They will look for the face and figure they knew. Like us they will find him gone, and to imagine their loss makes ours all the more poignant. Time to move on, to find that other home.

Memorial donations may be made in Skip’s name to the Damascus Public Library, 310 Water St., Damascus, VA 24236. Those wishing to express sympathy online may do so by visiting www.farrisfuneralservice.com and signing the online guest register.

The family of Charles Hilman “Skip” Ramsey is being cared for by Farris Funeral Service & Crematory, 427 East Main Street, Abingdon, VA 24210, (276) 623-2700.