YORK HARBOR and FALMOUTH – Charlotte Anne Ruprecht Erwin, 89, died Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Falmouth. She was born April 29, 1922, in New York City, the third and youngest child of Walter Ernst Ruprecht and Charlotte Mattlage Ruprecht of Englewood, N.J.
She was educated at Dwight School, Englewood and Walnut Hill School, Natick, Mass. She received her BA from Vassar College in 1944 and earned a master’s degree in personnel administration from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1947. She studied music at The Juilliard School in New York. May 31, 1947, she married James S. Erwin, also a native of Englewood, N.J. Mr. and Mrs. Erwin moved to York in 1949, where Mr. Erwin started a law practice that subsequently became part of the firm, Sewell, Strater, Erwin and Winton.
Mrs. Erwin became engaged in many local organizations, including Women’s League of York, Old York Garden Club, and Old York Historical and Improvement Society. She served terms as president of York Hospital Women’s Committee and of Old Gaol Museum Committee. It was during Mrs. Erwin’s years on the Gaol Committee that a serious understanding of historical preservation of the town’s rich legacy and hiring of professionally trained curators began in York. Mrs. Erwin joined the First Parish Church, York and for many years devoted herself to the music program there, first as a soloist, and then for many years as choir director. She also taught piano privately. Her talent and interest in music and the arts in general led to her volunteer associations with the Portsmouth, N.H. Community Concert Association, of which she was a director; Maine State Commission on the Arts and Humanities; and National Committee on Art Advocacy of the American Council of the Arts. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Erwin began his political career, twice becoming the Republican candidate for Maine’s governor and serving as Maine’s attorney general from 1967-1972. In addition to traveling widely throughout Maine with her husband and supporting his political work, Mrs. Erwin became a consultant to Berwick Academy and Wayneflete School in public relations and development, and was then named director of music in Maine, an artists-in-schools program administered by the Maine Arts Commission. She served on the staff of Maine Arts Commission from 1972 to 1974. In the 1960s Mr. and Mrs. Erwin owned and operated Chairback Mountain Camps, a commercial hunting and fishing camp near Greenville, known today as Gorman Chairback Lodge and Cabins. In 1976 Mrs. Erwin earned her real estate broker’s license and completed the Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI) course in 1978. In 1980 she founded Anne Erwin Real Estate in York, which she led until her retirement in 1989. Under her direction, the company was one of the first to join newly founded Sotheby’s International Realty network, which specializes in distinctive and historic properties. In recent years, Mrs. Erwin was a member of St. George’s Episcopal Church, York Harbor, where she served on the altar guild. She was active in the Friends of the York Public Library.
Mr. Erwin died in 2005. Mrs. Erwin is survived by her four children, Charlotte Erwin Simms and her husband, Bryan, of Glendale, Calif., Sarah Erwin Bodnar and her husband, Paul, of Baltimore, James Robinson Erwin and his wife, Eileen, of Yarmouth and Jane Erwin Hammett and her husband, Robert Dorsett, of Alameda, Calif.; seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Calling hours will be held 5-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6, at Lucas & Eaton Funeral Home, 91 Long Sands Road, York. A memorial service will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7 at St. George’s Episcopal Church, 407 York St., York Harbor. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Old York Historical Society. Visit
www.lucaseatonfuneralhome.com.