RIP CHARLES HARRIS: Courage and Integrity Until the End

“The world would be a better place with more Charlie Harrises and the racing world would be, too.”

So said Christophe Clement, the longtime trainer for Charles E. Harris, a New York-based venture capitalist and Thoroughbred owner and breeder who died Thursday afternoon, 19 months after being diagnosed with what doctors at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York said was incurable colon cancer. The diagnosis came just three months after Harris retired, at the age of 65, as chairman and CEO of the company he founded, Harris & Harris Group, which specialized in investing in small technology companies.

No one I’ve ever known approached his own impending death with the curiosity, integrity, honesty, courage and wit that Charlie did. Shortly after his diagnosis, he began writing an online blog about his experiences–the treatments he underwent, the side-effects and prognoses, the good days and bad that became part of his routine, and the thoughts that entered the mind of a man whose time on this earth was nearing its end. Never once did he complain. In fact, Charlie did his best to maintain a normal and vibrant life, traveling during the early stages of his diagnosis (“Living well is the best revenge,” he wrote during a trip to Paris, France), keeping tabs with his racing stable and the Thoroughbred industry that was such a big part of his life, reading, watching movies and sports, listening to music, and constantly communicating with friends. It wasn’t unusual to get an e-mail from Charlie at midnight, or at 5 a.m. for that matter.