Charles P. Sweet III (Charley) passed away on October 26, 2026, at his home in Suches, Georgia. Charley is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (Lisa) McNey Sweet; Lisa’s two children, Tristan and Anna Erwin; on his father’s side, his brother Stephen H. Sweet (Lorrie) of Boise, ID; and nieces and nephews. Charley was preceded in death by brothers Raymond S. Sweet (Scott) and Andrew M. Sweet (Andy).

Charley was born on December 14, 1946, in Eureka, California, to parents Charles P. Sweet Jr. and Helen Louise Lee. Following Helen’s departure when he was a year old, it would be his father’s second wife, Margaret (“Peggy”) Harrison Sweet, who became Charley’s mom.

A quest late in life to learn more about his birth mother led Charley to meet two sisters, Megan Brashears Paulus of Phoenix, AZ, and Kim Hoch of Walnut Creek, CA, and to learn of other half siblings.

Charley was a lifelong explorer in every sense. He loved rambling through the woods wherever he lived, from California to Japan to Kentucky and finally the North Georgia mountains. Plant him in any place, and he would learn it all on foot, preferably off trail. In Suches he put that knowledge to use for several years as a search-and-rescue volunteer with the local fire department. He also worked as a member of the Run Above the Clouds Committee, which sponsors an annual 10k race that funds scholarships for graduates of Woody Gap School.

A graduate of UC Davis, Charley lived on Haight Street in San Francisco for a time in the ‘60s and later for seven years in Kyoto, Japan, where he earned his Ph.D. in psychology and met his first wife, Harumi, an artist and nurse. Later, back in the States, he and Harumi settled in Grass Valley, CA, and then in the mountains of Northern California, in a tiny community called Hyampom.

In 2011, some years after his first marriage had ended, Charley found reason to break his rule about not dating anyone east of the Mississippi River when he met Lisa, who was teaching high school English in Kentucky. In 2012, Charley and Lisa married; and in 2013, they resettled in Suches, where Lisa’s mother lived and where her family stretches back for generations, as Charley’s did in Eureka. Charley had a new wilderness to discover.

Over his life, Charley worked variously in marketing; community development; solar energy; educational software development; and, lastly, copyediting for notable clients in the financial industry, a career he could pursue anywhere he had a satellite internet connection. He continued that work until September of 2026.

Charley’s explorations were not limited to rambles in the woods. He became an avid pickleball player. He wrote a lively memoir and, back in Japan, a novella. He pursued keen interests in what there might be to know of extraterrestrial life, in world events, and in the work of trauma healing. In recent years, he studied collective trauma and trauma healing with teacher and author Thomas Hubl.

When a lifetime of mostly vigorous health segued to his final illness, Charley chose to live every day as positively, hopefully, and purposefully as possible, renewing old relationships, sharing deepening conversations with friends, writing, and maintaining for as long as he could his journey of spiritual growth and his daily rituals of meditation, exercise, and caring for a much-loved menagerie of goats, chickens, ducks, and geese.

If he were writing this obituary, Charley would tell you today that he is now no longer “planet-side” but back Home with God, where, he believed, we continue to participate with Spirit in the work of healing our troubled world.

Charley’s celebration of life will take place in Suches in early December (details to be determined), and a memorial hike will follow in the spring. His ashes will be scattered on the small farm he worked to develop with Lisa and in the mountains he came to love. Donations in Charley’s memory may be made to the Suches Volunteer Fire Department (Union County Fire Department Station #5).

To share a memory or offer condolences to the family, please visit Mr. Sweet's online guestbook at andersonunderwood.com.

Anderson-Underwood Funeral Home, 2068 Highway 19 North, Dahlonega, Georgia 30533.