Charles Marsdon Saltsman Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1929 - d. 2005

Born in Waterbury on June 5, 1929, he graduated from Phillips Academy,
Andover, in 1948, and obtained a bachelor of science degree in naval
architecture and marine engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1952. He worked as a marine engineer for Bethlehem
Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Mass., for four years and for Raymond
Engineering (now Kaman) in Middletown for 37 years, retiring as vice
president in 1993.

Charlie was a devoted husband, father, engineer, artist and sailor. As an
engineer at Raymond Engineering, he designed precision electro-mechanical
devices such as timers and safety switches for military applications. He
participated in the development of the American heavy aerospace and military
weapons systems from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

As an artist, he developed a unique art technique employing wood mosaics and
epoxy, and used it to create astoundingly life-like sculptures of birds and
woodland animals. From his youth, Charlie was a painter of landscapes in
both oil and watercolor. Until very recently, he took painting classes at
the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and the Lyme Art Association to
enhance his artistic skills.

Charlie's maternal grandfather was a ship's captain in the China trade in
the 1800s. Charlie, too, had a passion for the sea and sailing that grew
from his teen years throughout his life. He cruised the coast of New England
with his family in their sloop Cirrus every summer for over 30 years. He was
a longtime member of both the Baldwin Yacht Club and the North Cove Yacht
Club, where he had served each as a past commodore.

Charlie had a passion for working with wood. He simultaneously lived in and
remodeled his home, the former Third Congregational Church parsonage, where
he lived in Middletown. It was during that time that he served as the
chairman of the Third Church Board of Trustees