Charles Richard "Dick" Working, a retired athletic coach and teacher who played briefly on the 1948 Baltimore Colts team and was a standout City College athlete, died of cancer June 2 at the Edenwald retirement community. The longtime Towson resident was 93.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Montpelier Street and on Gorsuch Avenue, he was the son of Harry Karl Working, a branch manager for the C. Hoffberger Ice Co., and the former Mamie Bell McDonald, a homemaker. He attended Clifton Park Junior High and was a 1941 City College graduate.
While at City, he earned varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. The football team was undefeated for three years. He hit a single, a triple and a home run and pitched the winning game in his final baseball game at City. A 1940 Baltimore Sun article called him "one of the greatest all-round athletes to attend City College."
While a senior at City, Mr. Working received offers to play football and baseball in college and chose Washington and Lee University. He played varsity football there but soon enlisted in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He became a flight engineer and nose gunner for B-24 planes. He flew in the China, India and Burma.
He returned to Washington and Lee after leaving the military and was tapped to try out for the newly formed Baltimore Colts in the spring of 1948. During the summer, he traveled with the team and played in exhibition games. He was the No. 1 quarterback until his new roommate, Y.A. Tittle, arrived.
Mr. Tittle became the starter and Mr. Working decided to return to Washington and Lee, where he helped coach football and earned his bachelor's degree. While in Virginia, Mr. Working played semipro baseball for the Valley League.
In 1949, he was named a social studies teacher, athletic director and coach at the Christ Church School on the Rappahannock River in Virginia's Tidewater. He held the post for four years.
"I was a boarder, and he made me feel like family. We practiced long and hard. He was a coach and a mentor, too," said Roy "Buzzy" Cather, who was a student of Mr. Working's at the school in Virginia and now lives in Summerfield, Fla.
In 1953, he joined the McDonogh School faculty and taught middle school math while serving as football and baseball coach. While at McDonogh, his football teams won the Maryland Scholastic Association's championships in 1959, 1962, and 1970. He was also named MSA Coach of the Year in 1959, 1965, 1966, and 1970. As varsity baseball coach, his teams won five MSA championships.
"Dick was a resourceful coach," said William "Bill" Mules, one of his students and former football players who went on to become McDonogh head of school. "He took what was given and made the best of us. He instilled a spirit in us. We were the underdogs in our big game against Gilman in November 1958. We beat them, 30-13."
Mr. Working left McDonogh in 1974 and taught mathematics at Boys' Latin School, where he reorganized its baseball program.
"He often said this was one of his most challenging professional endeavors, as Boys' Latin was known as a lacrosse school," said a daughter, Cynthia Lemieux of Lutherville.
"He was just an outstanding coach. He was a teacher of the game. He revived the Boys' Latin baseball program. He really made the difference," said John Sieverts, Boys' Latin director of development, who played for him at McDonogh. "And he assisted coach Ridge Warfield with football. They took the team to a different level."
Mr. Working retired in 1986.
He was waterfront director of Camp Red Cloud on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y., in the 1950s and 1960s. The camp was associated with McDonogh School. He was associate director of Camp DeWitt on Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, N.H. Mr. Working had a summer home in New Hampshire.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 Allegheny Ave.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include a son, Mike Working of Columbia; another daughter, Cheryl Seal of Timonium; a friend, Betty Webb of Towson; six grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His wife of 59 years, the former Genevieve "Gerry" Johnson, a bookkeeper, died in 2004.