Charles Gordon Zug, III

Obituary For Charles Gordon Zug, III

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Charles Gordon Zug III (known to most everyone as "Terry") of Chapel Hill, North Carolina on January 19, 2025, in Hillsborough, NC, at the age of 86. We will all miss his great sense of humor, boundless curiosity, love of children, and unwavering dedication to his family and friends.

Terry was born on February 26, 1938, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest child of Charles Gordon Zug Jr. and Harriet Loutrel Zug. With his younger siblings Chris and Lisa, who both predeceased Terry, the family lived in Edgeworth Borough, outside of Pittsburgh and spent their summers at Mason's Island, Connecticut where Terry loved to fish and swim. Terry attended Phillips Academy Andover for high school, followed by Yale University—where he played on the varsity soccer team, and was an accomplished discus thrower for the varsity track team. At Yale, Terry majored in engineering, but eventually decided that he had no interest in a career in engineering. So after graduating in 1959, he enlisted in the Navy.

Terry completed Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, and Mine Warfare School in Charleston, South Carolina in 1960, and was then stationed on two different minesweepers (the USS Dynamic and the USS Gannet) in the Pacific Fleet. He spent a fair amount of that time in Sasebo, Japan, where Terry immersed himself in Japanese culture—including driving around southern Japan on a motorbike, learning to speak conversational Japanese, and developing what would be a life-long interest in Japanese woodblock prints. Terry left active duty in 1963 to attend graduate school, but served in the Navy Reserve for years after—eventually ending his naval career having attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Back stateside, Terry obtained a master's degree in English from the University of Pittsburgh in 1965, followed by a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. It was during graduate school that he met his first wife, Sara Penelope Griswold, whom he married in 1967. In 1968, Terry and Sara moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where Terry began teaching at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of English and Curriculum in Folklore. In 1970, their first child, Charles Gordon Zug IV (known as Geordie) was born, followed by their second child, daughter Eliza Wendell Zug, in 1973. Terry and Sara divorced in 1984.

Terry taught at UNC for 33 years, retiring in 2001. His primary academic passion was folklore--primarily Southern material culture. Throughout his academic career he interviewed and conducted fieldwork with many southern folk artists and outsider artists. He was the author of multiple books on material culture, including the 1986 award-winning Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina—a comprehensive chronicling of the folk pottery traditions of North Carolina. Terry was also a beloved and respected professor, advisor, and mentor to many classes of UNC undergraduate and graduate students.

Terry was instrumental in the founding of the North Carolina Pottery Center, opened in 1998 in Seagrove, NC—the first state pottery center in the nation. Terry served as interim director of the center multiple times, and continued to be very active in the activities of the center well into retirement. Terry was one of the true experts on southern pottery, often speaking at pottery festivals and other events in the southeast.

In 1989, Terry met and fell in love with Daphne Sledge Cruze, and they later married in 2001. Terry and Daphne spent many happy years living together in Chapel Hill in a house full of folk art. In his free time, Terry loved to cook, grow vegetables in his gardens, split firewood with a sledgehammer and wedge, play with Daphne's and his dogs, collect folk art, watch Pittsburgh Steelers football and UNC Tar Heels basketball games, and spend time with his family. He especially loved children, and enjoyed teasing and playing with his four granddaughters as well as many other children he encountered in his daily life.

Terry is survived by his wife Daphne Cruze-Zug, his son Geordie Zug and Geordie's wife Marcia Zug, his daughter Eliza Cox and her partner Philippe Rispoli, his stepdaughter Sidney Moffitt and her husband Don Moffitt, his stepson Warren Cruze, his grandchildren Willa Zug, Lucy Zug, Chloe Rispoli, and Isabel Moffitt, and his and Daphne's beloved Jack Russell Terrier, Maisie.

A memorial/remembrance service for Terry is being planned for May 18, 2025, to be held at the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC. Everyone is invited to attend. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to the North Carolina Pottery Center in memory of Terry.