Charles Yardley Chittick ’22
Charles Yardley Chittick ’22, who was honored this past June as the oldest MIT alumnus, died on Friday, July 18. He was 107.
While a student at MIT, Chittick was elected captain of the one-mile relay track team. He graduated from MIT with an SB in engineering administration with a mechanical engineering option, a course that has since been absorbed by the MIT Sloan School of Management. He was also a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Chittick lived most recently at a retirement community in New Hampshire, but was a regular visitor to MIT’s campus. He was commonly seen at the annual Tech Day Luncheon at Commencement, and celebrated his 86th reunion this past June.
Chittick was also an alum of Phillips Academy, where he roomed across the hall from — and feuded with — Humphrey Bogart, who was a classmate. He was Phillips Academy’s oldest living alumnus, recently celebrating his 90th reunion there this year. He was also the oldest living Beta Theta Pi member and oldest living patent lawyer.
After leaving MIT, Chittick was offered a job by Thomas Edison, but ultimately turned it down to take a job with a manufacturing company that produced golf clubs.
“I had to tell Mr. Edison ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ I went to work for a company that manufactured golf clubs. I guess I was more interested in golf than I was in a laboratory,” Chittick told the News Office in 2001.