By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — The late homebuilder and Planning Board member Charlie Wills is being remembered for his unwavering dedication to the Lynnfield community and making the town what it is today.
Wills passed away on May 14 at the age of 101. He was the son of late architect Royal Barry Wills and Marguerite Waggett Wills. He was born on Feb. 18, 1924, and was raised in Melrose.
After graduating from Melrose High School as a member of the Class of 1941, Wills went on to attend Tilton Junior College and later the University of New Hampshire. He enlisted in the U.S. Army’s Air Cadet Program in November 1942 and was called to active duty on Feb. 19, 1943.
Wills was deployed to Southern Italy in September 1944, and he survived 35 missions while serving as a radio operator and gunner on a Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber.
After World War II, Wills married his high school sweetheart, Arnie, and the couple finished their last year of college studying together at UNH. Wills went straight to work after graduation, following in his father’s footsteps by becoming a homebuilder.
Wills began his career by working for his father’s firm, Royal Barry Wills Associates, before he started his own firm,
C B Wills & Co Inc., with his cousin and business partner Roger Harris. Longtime Historical Society member Helen Breen noted in an August 2022 article that Wills was young when he started helping his father develop Sherwood Forest, which was a wooded section of South Lynnfield at the time.
“Charlie’s father, the esteemed architect Royal Barry Wills (1895-1962), and his partner, Bengt Eriksson, first bought this land from the Pierce estate on Suntaug Lake during World War II,” Breen wrote in the article. “Yet two banks turned down their request for mortgages, maintaining that the location was ‘too far out.’ Charlie built his first dozen houses in the Forest in partnership with his father before striking out on his own.”
From 1947 to 2000, Wills and Harris built more than 600 homes in the area and 388 homes in Lynnfield that included homes located on Apple Hill Lane, Cooks Farm Lane, Cortland Lane, Fernway, Fletcher Road, the King James Grant area, October Lane, Stoneway and around Pillings Pond.
“The Wills distinctive footprint was all over town,” Breen wrote. “More than half of new homes were two-story Colonials, followed by split entries, ranches and capes. Many featured sturdy foursquare chimneys, spacious breezeways, narrow dormers and small glass pane windows on garage doors. Charlie was a stickler for proportion. He dug basements deeper so there would be less foundation visible on the façade.”
The largest development Wills and Harris built was Center Village, a 60-unit senior housing development on Main Street that was the first Village constructed for the Lynnfield Initiative for Elders, Inc. (L.I.F.E.), in the early 1980s. Wills’ late father’s firm designed Center Village.
Historical Commission Chair Kirk Mansfield said Wills left a tremendous legacy on the town.
“On behalf of the Historical Commission, we are deeply saddened by Charlie’s passing,” said Mansfield. “In addition to being one of the kindest and most genuine people we’ve had the privilege of knowing, his years of public service were a true inspiration to each of us. We are especially grateful that Charlie, at 100-years-old, was able to visit the historic marker we placed in Sherwood Forest — honoring the first post-war neighborhood he and his father, an internationally recognized architect, designed and built together. Their work throughout neighborhoods such as Sherwood Forest, King James Grant, Apple Hill and Pillings Pond represents a significant chapter in Lynnfield’s story. As we continue our ongoing efforts to preserve and honor the more than 300 historic Wills homes, Charlie’s legacy serves as a meaningful reminder of the importance of that mission.”
In addition to building 388 homes in town, Wills was very active in the Lynnfield community. He served on many boards and committees, including the Bicentennial Committee in 1976.
Wills was appointed to the Planning Board in the fall of 2010 at the age of 86 after Donald Harriss passed away. He served on the Planning Board until June 2020.
Planning Board member Brian Charville said he enjoyed serving three years on the board with Wills. While serving as Planning Board chair during Wills’ final meeting, Charville called him “our historian, our conscience and our reality check.”
“I know that I speak for everyone on the Lynnfield Planning staff and Planning Board when I say that Charlie Wills truly will be missed,” said Charville in an email sent to the Villager. “No one ever again will have the outstanding combination of intellectual and physical effects on Lynnfield that Charlie did. Serving as a Planning Board member well into his 90s, Charlie often had a more precise recollection of a project from decades ago than the project’s own plans depicted, and it was invaluable even decades later to have his perspective as a builder on developments that were changed or reintroduced in recent years. He provided a practicality to the Planning Board’s decisions that made him the board’s conscience. A gentleman in the truest sense of the word, Charlie always will be a giant in Lynnfield’s planning and development history. We are all blessed by his life and service.”
Planning Board Vice Chair Kate Flaws agreed.
“Charlie was an incredible person and a dedicated public servant who cared about the community,” said Flaws. “He served on the Planning Board into his 90s, and he had a lot of pride while serving on the Planning Board. He will be sorely missed.”
Planning and Conservation Director Emilie Cademartori concurred with Charville and Flaws’ sentiments.
“Charlie brought with him a wealth of knowledge of the town, having been so integral in its development over his professional career as a developer and homebuilder,” said Cademartori. “He had an incredible memory, and could recall details about every property he had been involved with, often providing anecdotal information during meetings when a property would come before the board. As part of a build-out analysis, I sat with Charlie one afternoon to review a detailed map of the whole town. He was able to provide information about every vacant or oversized lot in town. He knew what the constraints were, whether or not the soils were suitable for septic or if there was ledge. It was incredible. I miss his visits to Town Hall, when you never knew which of his prized cars would pull into the parking lot. Charlie Wills was a gentleman, a resource and just a wonderful person.”
Select Board Chair Phil Crawford said Wills and his father “left a tremendous legacy not only in Lynnfield, but in the neighboring towns around us.”
“Charlie was a true gentleman,” said Crawford. “He was very knowledgeable and personable. He was always polite and always gave back to the town. He loved being on town boards and helping out, particularly with the Planning Board. He served on the Planning Board into his 90s. He was a tremendous role model for everyone in town and showed what it means to give back to the town. He and his father, Royal Barry Wills, built a good percentage of this town. His legacy will go on forever. He will be sorely missed.”
Wills and Arnie moved from their Smith Farm Trail home to the Edgewood LifeCare Community in North Andover in the spring of 2021. Arnie passed away in 2023. The couple was married for nearly 77 years.
Wills’ daughter, Cynthia Harriman, said her father was incredibly dedicated to Arnie and the couple’s four children. She said he taught her and her siblings the importance of resiliency.
“In the last year of his life, Dad had completely lost the ability to speak understandably,” said Harriman. “After his 100th birthday, he quickly learned how to use an iPad app that let him type out his message, then tap the speaker icon to make the iPad talk for him. Sure, he could have simply written with a pencil on a notepad, as his time as a World War II radio operator on a B-24 made him a very fast writer, but the iPad let his humor come through, sharing a punch line or a wry comment to a group of people.
“Dad taught us all so much about resilience and perseverance in his final years,” Harriman continued. “Despite mobility challenges, great difficulty swallowing safely and an inability to speak understandably, he pushed his rollator about a third of a mile round trip each night to join friends in the dining room for dinner. He was sharp as a tack to the end, managing his own finances and writing detailed, colorful emails to family members once he could no longer speak with them.”
Breen said she will miss her late friends Charlie and Arnie, but said the couple left a lasting and profound legacy on Lynnfield.
“Charlie and his late wife Arnie truly loved Lynnfield, both fully entering into its civic and social life throughout their years here,” said Breen in an interview with the Villager. “For example, they were among the prime movers in the town’s historic 1976 Bicentennial Celebrations. They each exemplified growing older with grace, enjoying their later years at the Edgewood senior community in North Andover. The nearly 400 elegant homes that Charlie and his partner Roger Harris built in Lynnfield from 1947-2000 remain as a testament to his ‘Wills built’ style that enhances the charm of our town.”