Mark Patinkin offers a goodbye to Charlie Wright, Newport's 50-year Polar Bear legend

I’m guessing most people picture heaven as warm. But Charlie Wright, who recently left us at age 81, is no doubt up there looking for a lovely frigid place to continue taking his weekly polar plunge.

Charlie was a Rhode Island icon in an area that’s central to our identity – the ocean. But for him, it wasn’t just about warm summer days. He preferred his seaside weather to be glacial.

For 50 years, Charlie was among the original Newport Polar Bears.

But not just once annually with the crowds on New Year’s Day.

Charlie and the Newport polar squad dipped every Sunday. Right through winter. Always at his preferred Easton's Beach in Newport. Most mortals would consider it punishment, but Charlie loved it.

I can attest to how much gumption Charlie had because I once did a plunge with him. That was 10 years ago, and I’m finally just now warming back up.

It was 39 degrees that late December day, and windy.

I came down with my two young adult sons, and I suppose I could have taken the dip just with them, but Charlie was known as Rhode Island’s Polar Bear icon, so I asked if he could show us how it was done.

Charlie Wright was an Air Force vet and master plumber who wanted to offer his skills to the community, so he also taught at New England Tech and helped Rogers High School start its vocational program.

But what made him a local legend was his half-century run as a weekly dipper with the Newport Polar Bears, founded in the 1960s.

We met at the pavilion at Easton’s Beach. Even in heavy jackets, my sons and I were freezing in the winter wind – and miserable with dread.

Charlie wasn’t.

"What a great day to swim," he said.

At 72, his enthusiasm put the three of us to shame.

He also proved an example of being from a tougher generation. Charlie told us the weekly Polar Bears had mostly faded as a thing, with original members growing old – some infirm – and no new blood joining.

But Charlie this day was still at it.

If you’re doing a Polar Plunge, it’s good to know a guy, and Charlie was our guy – he got us access to a changing room in the beach pavilion.

He told me it was a special favor – the Polar Bears in the past simply met in the parking lot and headed into the drink.

As my sons and I moaned about our fate, Charlie said it wasn’t so bad – 39 degrees was balmy. In the past, he’d had days of walking over hardened beach snow, the air temperature zero, the salty ocean around 32 and bobbing with ice chunks.

I asked if his wife Anne ever goes with him.

“Oh God, no,” he said, explaining she’s a sane woman.

Anne survives him, as do his kids Jennifer and Jeffrey – he lost his daughter Lisa last September.

Charlie proved an endearingly down-to-earth guy. At one point, I asked why he swims in winter, hoping for a moving quote about the diverse beauty of all seasons.

He just smiled and said, "Because that's what we do."

But he added that among other things, it really does fortify immunity – the Newport Polar Bear squad rarely got sick.

Finally, it was time.

We marched over the sand and began into the water, my sons and I jumping, wailing and generally freaking out.

When we were at thigh level, I asked Charlie how one gets the gumption to plunge, which drew a memorable line.

"You'll be ready," he said, "once you get that slap in the old gazakas."

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At last, after about a dozen false tries, my sons and I dipped, burst back up, and ran hysterically to the beach.

As for Charlie, he calmly waded in, then submerged without drama, and slowly walked out of the water.

Talk about a professional.

He was even smiling – God love the man, he actually enjoyed it.

I have to admit, once it was over, you definitely felt alive. That, Charlie Wright explained, is why he and the Polar Bears swam weekly for so many decades.

What a great tradition, and a great man.

Somewhere on Easton’s Beach, especially in winter, Charlie’s spirit lives on.

mpatinki@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Charlie Wright, founding member of Newport's Polar Bears, remembered