Charles H. Harff died peacefully on March 9 at his home in Sewickley, Pa. He had an illustrious career as a Wall street lawyer as well as a corporate executive. He was 85.

After his retirement in 1996, he devoted himself to a number of community and charitable organizations. In addition, he and his wife Marion traveled extensively throughout the world, generally taking two or three extended trips each year.

He was born Sept. 27, 1929 in Wesel, Germany, and came to the United States with his parents Philip and Stephanie Harff and his younger brother Dr. George D. Harff in December 1937. The family lived in New York city while his father, who had earned his medical degree at Heidelberg after serving in the German Army in World War I, learned English and obtained his license to resume his medical practice. In June 1939 the family moved to Cambridge, N.Y., where his father was a general practitioner for 35 years. Charles was forever grateful that his parents not only had the courage to leave Europe, sensing the oncoming conflict, but also to move to a small community where their sons could grow up as Americans, uninfluenced by being a part of an ethnic community as many other contemporary immigrants chose to do.

Charles thrived in the Cambridge school, graduating in 1947 as valedictorian of his senior class. The small rural school gave him the opportunity to play varsity basketball and baseball, edit the school paper, and participate in many other activities. He also became the first Eagle Scout in the history of Washington County.

He graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University in 1951, where he was a member of the senior honor society and Phi Beta Kappa. In 1954 he received his law degree from Harvard Law School, after which he spent a year at the University of Bonn (Germany) as a Fulbright scholar.

On returning to the United States, he began practicing law in New York city as an associate at the Wall street firm of Chadbourne & Parke (then known as Chadbourne, Parke, Whiteside, Wolff & Brophy). He remained at that firm for 29 years, eventually becoming its senior and managing partner. He specialized in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and other aspects of corporate practice. In 1984 he joined one of his clients, Rockwell International Corporation, as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary.

Rockwell had dual headquarters in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles at that time. Charles had offices in both cities for all Rockwell’s senior executives divided their time in the east and west. He and his wife Marion opted to move to Sewickley, Pa., to be closer to their children and to the summer home they had built in 1969 on Martha’s Vineyard. Over the years at Rockwell, his role expanded well beyond the legal function, with active senior management involvement in the company’s finance, strategic planning, human resources and communications functions.

After retiring in 1996, he became a director of Arvin Meritor Inc., a leading automotive supplier that was spun-off from Rockwell in 1997. Over the nine years he served on that board, Arvin Meritor grew from annual sales of about $4 billion to $10 billion and strengthened its leadership position as the preeminent supplier of equipment for the heavy truck and trailer businesses.

While a successful business life was important to him, Charles always believed two other aspects of his life were far more rewarding and important. First and foremost were his family, clearly led by his wife Marion Haines MacAfee. From the time of their marriage on July 19, 1958 in the Church of the Ascension in Manhattan, Marion was the love of his life, offering encouragement and support to a career that often required very long hours and time away from home. She recognized early on that “the law is a jealous mistress,” and while at times frustrated by her rival, she was most appreciated for her understanding and commitment to Charles’ career. Charles always recognized the strong leadership Marion provided that enabled their children, Pamela, Blair and Todd, to grow up with different interests and yet with a common bond of independence, integrity and compassion.

The second part of his life of which Charles was very proud was saving, with his college and law school classmate Bob Fullem, over 550 acres of land on Martha’s Vineyard from overdevelopment. With a major and creative effort, motivated by a commitment to protect the environment and without any effort at economic gain, they founded the Farm Neck Golf Club in 1978. In this process they saw to the donation of over 100 acres outright and scenic easements and development rights over an additional nearly 200 acres to the Massachusetts Audobon Society. Where a development of 840 houses on one-fourth acre lots had been proposed, instead one of New England’s finest golf courses with only 49 home sites was created. As part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the founding of Farm Neck, Charles wrote its history in a book entitled A Dream Fulfilled. As he noted in the book, “Farm Neck represents the single most satisfying achievement that Bob Fullem and I have had in our careers. During our careers as Wall street lawyers, we were involved in a number of major corporate transactions, including highly contested transactions well publicized in the financial press — yet as exciting and interesting as our daily work was for each of us, we derived the most satisfaction from our efforts to create Farm Neck.” The 500-plus acres of beautiful property will be there, largely unspoiled, for many generations to enjoy.

While practicing as a New York lawyer, Charles also served on the boards of several industrial companies. For many years, he served as president and director of Farm Neck and he was a member of the Harvard Club of New York city, the Duquesne Club, and the Allegheny Country Club. He also served as president and a director of the Fulbright Association, a director of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, the Martha’s Vineyard Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, the Pittsburgh Opera, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the Atlantic Legal Foundation and Featherstone Center for the Arts. He was a former member of the legal advisory committee of the New York Stock Exchange, the Association of General Counsel, the Aerospace Counsel Group, the lawyers committee of MAPI and the Laurel Valley Golf Club.

In the last several years, he enjoyed duplicate bridge, playing in tournaments in Pittsburgh, Bermuda, Florida, New Jersey and New England in his quest to become a life master.

He was predeceased by his son, J. Blair Harff, who died in April 2008 in a farm accident, and by his wife Marion who died in April 2009. He is survived by two children, Pamela and husband Bob Daufenbach, and Todd and wife Judy, and by grandchildren April and Amy Harff, as well as Blair’s children, Scott, Kayla and Benjamin Harff, and Blair’s widow, Nina Harff Ritcey. He is also survived by his brother, Dr. George D. Harff and wife Norene of Albany, N.Y., and their three sons, Stephen, Christopher and Douglas.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions may be made to the charity of your choice or to the Pittsburgh Opera, 2425 Liberty avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222; the Sewickley Valley Hospital, Blackburn Road, Sewickley, PA 15143; the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, One Hospital Road, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, or Featherstone Center for the Arts, P.O. Box 1145, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.