Charles Borromeo Molineaux

“Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour.” In Matthew 25:13, the Lord reminds us to be ever vigilant and prepared to meet Him. This is how Charles B. Molineaux lived his life – as though he could meet the Lord any day. He passed away June 17 peacefully at home.   

Charles prepared himself for the afterlife through a life of service to God, family and country. While doing so, he instilled faith in his six children and twelve grandchildren. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather; an avid and active follower of politics; a voracious reader; an intellectually energetic student of history and genealogy; an athlete; patriot; and one of the last true gentlemen, in the purest and most noble sense of the word. 

Charles Molineaux was born September 27, 1930 in Brooklyn, NY and baptized in St. Thomas Church in Woodhaven (Queens), NY. In the mid-1930s he lived in a suburb of Springfield, MA and began school in Longmeadow, placed in second grade at the outset. After moving back to Jamaica Estates in Queens, NY, he attended PS 131 and, ultimately, Xavier High School in Manhattan. Upon graduating from high school, Charles attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1950 with a BSFS, cum laude, at age 19. 

Charles made clear in his later days that he did not consider himself a polymath, but his knowledge and expertise indeed spanned a diverse and significant number of subjects. His work life roughly broke down into four phases: 

• 1950-1956 Intelligence operative: CIA and US Army; 
• 1956-1990 Construction lawyer after securing his law degree on full scholarship at St. John’s Law School where he was law review editor and student editor of The Catholic Lawyer; construction law firms in NYC and General Counsel, Perini Corporation, MA; 
• 1990-2015 International arbitrator with concomitant travel to Paris, London, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Sri Lanka. He received the FIDIC Award in Capetown, South Africa in 1996 for “significant service to the engineering profession”; 
• 2015-2025 Canonist and writer: After studies at the Dominican House of Studies and Catholic University, he received the Juris Canonici Licentiatus degree – the doctorate in Canon Law – at 90 years of age. His writings have appeared in the Wall St. Journal, New Oxford Review and Latin Mass magazine. 

While Charles was serving God, serving our country and tending to his law practices, his true love on earth was his wife Patricia, and eventually his children and grandchildren, each of whom he gave a nickname. 

In a recent letter, Charles said he was “charmed” by Patricia Devereux at Spring Lake, NJ, on August 15, 1959. He proposed to her on Valentine’s Day, 1960 and they were married in St. Louis, July 2, 1960. With his enthusiasm for history, he would remind his children the date is also the anniversary of the 1644 Battle of Marston Moor at which Viscount Molyneux fought under the command of Rupert of the Rhein. His children would joke in return that Dad was probably there too. 

As husband and father, Charles Molineaux led his family in tight, faithful partnership alongside Patricia with an unwavering focus on religion and the best education possible for all six children. After six college graduations, Charles continued supporting his children as counselor, advisor, coach and friend with a firm but gentle touch as each pursued six different career paths – none became a lawyer (of which he was very proud) and none followed the same path as any other.  

But Charles’ support for his wife and children did not end with education. Throughout fatherhood he shared his peripatetic nature with his children, providing opportunities to travel, especially to his second home in Vermont, which was purchased by his father in 1948. In 2023 he arranged for the Pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wilmington, VT to bless the house on the 75th anniversary because, of course, each adventure was an opportunity for family bonding, education, fun, and most important, spiritual enrichment and getting ever closer to God. 

Charles Molineaux never retired in the widely held sense of the word. He did not like fishing and considered golf “boring.” While ever-watchful over his children and grandchildren, Charles continued the practice of law, turning his focus to Canon Law of the Catholic Church and earning his second doctorate, the aforementioned JCL. He continued to attend daily Latin Mass for as long as he was physically able, and remained sharp through constant reading of journals, Catholic magazines and websites, published poetry, articles on pomology, and papers by world-renowned thought leaders across many topics. He was the family encyclopedia, knowledgeable with virtually no boundaries.  

Charles Molineaux led a life guided by the Holy Spirit and frequent conversations – albeit one way – with the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph (the patron saint of fathers and husbands), and St. Thomas More, a patron saint of lawyers, statesmen and politicians. He is survived by his adoring wife, Patricia; their six children: Charles, Stephen, Christopher, Trish, Peter and Liz; and twelve grandchildren: Nicholas, John, Wil, Teddy, Luke, Chase, Alex, Michaela, Connor, Katie, Maddie and Brendan. 

“…ye know not the day nor the hour…”  We know no person who was better prepared to meet the Lord than Charles Molineaux.