Painter, author, columnist, art critic, poet and general provocateur Charles Curtis Long III (Butch) passed away in Roseville, Calif. on Feb. 9, 2018.

He was a man of many talents and forced his amiable yet acerbic opinion onto the world stage in both canvas and print, accumulating an impressive cache of accomplishments along the way.

His art has been featured in showings in New York, London, San Francisco, Berkeley — just to name a few — and his writings have graced the pages of many publications both in the United States and England.

He was a featured columnist for London’s high-brow art magazine “Flux,” and his column, “Our Man in Manhattan,” has been captured in one collection and sold on Amazon with the title by the same name. It is a foray into the mind of a world traveler who wasn’t afraid to vent his private musings in a most public way.

His series of paintings of “Flowers and Fishes” were stylistically primitive and unconventional, the unmistakable imprint of a complex mind meeting canvas in an unusual yet visually beautiful manner.

Charles was born in Bremerton and was raised in Oak Harbor. He graduated with honors from Oak Harbor High School in 1974. Charles was a two-sport letterman in both football and baseball, and as a youngster was the first Punt, Pass and Kick participant from Oak Harbor to make it to the state finals.

Charles attended Washington State University and graduated in communications in 1978. He was extremely proud of his association with WSU and very much enjoyed his annual travels to Cougar football games with his friends over the past few years.

After college, Charles moved to Seattle and began working for an advertising agency in Pioneer Square. Within a year he fulfilled his dream by moving to Manhattan, where he immersed himself in the culture, art and theater of one of the worlds’ great cities.

It is there he met his future wife, Rebecca Higgins. They married in 1982 in Boston. Their beautiful and cherished daughter Isabel was born in 1994. Together they lived in New York and London, and traveled the world in their spare time, giving much rise to Charles’ artistic life.

Charles is survived by his daughter Isabel Higgins Long, the apple of her father’s eye, now a student and teacher in Denver, working with autistic children. Isabel inherited from her father a strong sense of making this world a better place. Charles is also survived by his brother Mark Long (1976 Oak Harbor HS graduate) and a resident of Anchorage, Alaska.

Charles was preceded in death by his parents, Thelma and Charles Curtis Long II.

Charles’ original artwork can be viewed and purchased on eBay, as well as his collection of short stories, “Puget Sound,” on Amazon along with the aforementioned, “Our Man in Manhattan.”

Charles will be dearly missed but never forgotten by his loving family and friends the world over.