Christopher Slocombe Welch passed away the morning of August 17, 2024 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. According to Chris, he was "born in Hartford CT and was immediately moved to West Hartford where he grew up without incident for 18 years." After leaving the Hartford area for Sunnyvale CA, he met his future wife Betty (Hand) Welch at a local Chinese restaurant. While in Sunnyvale, Chris graduated from Leland Stanford Jr. University in 1966. Chris and Betty confirmed their love by marrying on February 1st, 1967. Chris and Betty's next adventure was a move to Cambridge MA, where Chris completed his PhD in oceanography from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chris was fond of noting, it "is not known when or how they escaped Cambridge" but from there they moved to Gloucester Point Virginia, where they set up deep roots, finding a wonderful house by the river and continuing their long and happy life together with their dogs and cats. Moving to Cloucester, Chris began working for the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. While in Gloucester, he had a long and eclectic career doing everything from working for NASA to teaching at William and Mary and even doing a stint as a high school science teacher. Chris' work included input to ocean navigation charts used by mariners to this day. As a member of the Gloucester Point community he sang baritone for the Abingdon Church in Gloucester and was quite active with Betty on a local cable TV station, broadcasting over 1,000 shows of the popular program, "Woman's World", where Chris served many roles including cameraman, editor and technical expert during the show's 22 year run.

He was predeceased by his wife Betty (Hand) Welch and his elder brother Winthrop Anthony Welch II. He is survived younger sister Sherry (Welch) Briggs, and his nieces and nephews Winthrop Welch III, Audrey (Welch) Breen, Jenny Briggs, and Benjamin Briggs.

Family will receive friends at Andrews Funeral Home at 10:00 a.m. until 10:45 AM on Friday, August 23, 2024. Funeral home address is: 7192 Main St., Gloucester, VA.

Funeral services will be held on Friday August 23, 2024 at 12 Noon at Abingdon Episcopal Church 4645 George Washington Memorial Highway, White Marsh VA.

The interment will be held at Sylvan Lawn Cemetery, Greene, NY, Saturday, September 7, 2024. Sylvan Lawn is on the corner of County Road 32 (Juliand Street) and Highway 206 in the town of Greene, east of the village of Green

Memorial contributions may be made to the Gloucester-Mathews Humane Society, P.O. Box 385, Gloucester, VA 23061.

As Chris was fond of saying - "so long"!