Charles Montgomery Meredith III, 85, former owner and publisher of the Quakertown Free Press and lifelong civic leader in Bucks County, died Dec. 11, 2020, in his beloved Quakertown home where he grew up. He was the husband of the late Betsy Meredith who died in September. They were married for 60 years. Born in Reading, he was the son of Charles M. II and Ella Meredith.

He followed both his father and grandfather into the publishing business, his grandfather having bought the newspaper in 1910. In addition to publishing The Free Press, Meredith founded the Emmaus Free Press and the Indian Valley Echo.

He served as president of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association and was a director in the American Newspaper Publishers Association. Before he turned 30, he had been elected to the Bucks County Board of Commissioners and was also Captain of the First Troop Philadelphia City Calvary, America’s oldest military unit. He was Master of Quakertown’s Masonic Fraternity and president of the Quakertown Rotary Club. He served as chairman of the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation, chairperson of the East Penn AAA and was on the board at Quakertown National Bank (now QNB Bank).

A bon-vivant and Renaissance man with an insatiable hunger for knowledge, he never stopped reading or writing. He had a wicked sense of humor and delighted in stirring the pot, yet he was also a dedicated philanthropist who fought for Bucks County’s open spaces. As a Bucks County Commissioner, he spearheaded the project that would become Lake Nockamixon. Meredith’s customary salutation was an exuberant “Huzzah!” and when asked how he was feeling – even after the stroke that would eventually kill him – he invariably answered, “I’m in the pink!”

In his final years, he was a columnist for The Morning Call and the Bucks County Herald.

His twin loves – politics and music – came to him naturally. His father was a raconteur who taught his son how to command a room and tell a good story; his mother Ella was a gifted singer who passed her love of music and perfect pitch to her only child.

After attending The Hill School, Meredith went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a song and dance man in Mask and Wig, making television performances on Jack Paar, Steve Allen and Ed Sullivan. He graduated with distinction from The Wharton School in 1957.

Together with his wife, Meredith sang with the Berkshire Choral Institute chorus and the Lehigh Choral Union with Steven Sametz. They were members of the Richland Friends Meeting and he robustly played trombone with the Quakertown Band.

Following quadruple bypass surgery in his mid 40s, he took up rowing with the University Barge Club in Philadelphia. He became a great ambassador for the sport, teaching many young people how to row. He famously put more than 15,000 miles on his car in order to row 1,000 miles on the Schuylkill River.

He is survived by daughters Anne and Catherine; a son Charles “Ty” IV and grandchildren Grace and Charles “Quint” V.

Shortly before he died, he wrote, quoting Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you.” He continued, “Hopefully my life will have been spent helping others. Let us all help one another, and all of us leave the world in a better place than we found it. Do not follow. Lead.”