Charles Edward Scarlett Jr., retired chairman of Ramsay, Scarlett & Co. Inc., whose 40-year avocation was the painstaking restoration of Whitehall, a historic home built for one of Colonial Maryland's last governors, died of a stroke Sunday at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 88.
The Scarlett family's maritime roots date to the 1840s, when English ancestor William Patterson built the famous steam passenger vessels Great Western and Great Britain.
The venerable Baltimore steamship agency's predecessor firm of Patterson, Ramsay & Co. was founded in 1880 by Mr. Scarlett's grandfather. His father, Charles E. Scarlett Sr., was company president from 1926 until his death in 1940.
Mr. Scarlett was born and raised in Guilford, graduated from the Gilman School in 1927 and earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1931.
He began his waterfront career in 1935 as a timekeeper for Baltimore Stevedoring Co., a subsidiary of Ramsay, Scarlett.
He later shared management of Ramsay, Scarlett with a brother, William D. G. Scarlett, who retired in 1970 as president and died in 1974.
Mr. Scarlett ended his 53-year career in 1988, when he retired as chairman of the board.
"Charles was a very influential port figure who could be very tough," said Helen Delich Bentley, a former congresswoman and federal maritime commissioner who described him as a "decent and highly respected individual."
Mrs. Bentley recalled that during the 1950s, when Mr. Scarlett was president of the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore, he challenged New York's domination of the shipping business.
"He worked hard to try and preserve Baltimore's advantages, especially when the shots in those days were being called from New York and all Baltimore was getting was pieces of business. He fought some very difficult and tough battles for the port."
As a leader of the Citizens Committee for Saving the Constellation, he played a pivotal role in the historic vessel's return to Baltimore in 1955.
But it was his purchase in 1946 of Whitehall, a Colonial masterpiece on 115 acres between Meredith and Whitehall creeks near Annapolis, that became an overwhelming lifelong interest.
"For Maryland, it is a treasure of immense historical and cultural value," said Joseph M. Coale III, a trustee of the Maryland Historical Trust and former president of Historic Annapolis Foundation. "It was a wonderful example of historic preservation before restoration earned the national credibility that it now enjoys."
