Charles "Tweed" Bryant's Obituary
Charles “Tweed” Bryant
February 8, 1937 – August 27, 2022
Charles Hugh “Tweed” Bryant was born in Yadkinville, North Carolina, the 10th child of Nereus Patterson Bryant and Beulah Long Bryant. Growing up on a tobacco farm gave him a practical, clear-headed outlook on life. His large family taught him the value of teamwork, and his parents taught him the value of education. He would often say that “many hands make light work,” and “most things are easier than farming.”
At Yadkinville High School, Bryant acquired his second-hand nickname from a third-hand tweed suit he proudly wore at least once. He was active in the Beta Club (Vice President), the Dramatics Club, the football team (All-Conference tackle), and the yearbook staff (Editor). In 1955 he received a commendation for being Neither Absent nor Tardy for the school year. Tweed Bryant was voted Most Intellectual in his senior class, and his yearbook quotation was “Devout yet cheerful, active yet resigned.”
A first-generation college student, Tweed Bryant graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Civil Engineering. He ran Cross Country his freshman year, served in ROTC, and was a member of the honorary fraternity for Civil Engineering (Chi Epsilon) and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was also active in the Wesley Foundation, where he met his wife Sybil Bradshaw Bryant (who preceded him in death). They were married for over 50 years.
Tweed Bryant enjoyed a long career as a structural engineer who designed bridges, a profession his wife considered romantic. After beginning his career with the California Highway Department, he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, to accept a position with Harland Bartholomew & Associates (later part of Parsons Corporation). Bryant would live most of his life in the Memphis area, where he was active in St. James United Methodist Church, Germantown United Methodist Church, and the Engineers’ Club of Memphis. He directed two church youth choirs, and he sang a hearty bass from the choir loft and from the pews. He lived his last years in Cincinnati, Ohio, to be near his son’s family.
Bryant was registered as a Professional Engineer in Alabama, California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee. He designed highway and railroad bridges as well as pedestrian overpasses. Projects he especially enjoyed included the Walnut Grove bridge over Germantown Parkway and the Wolf River Boulevard bridge (in Memphis), and the Veterans Memorial Bridge (in Chattanooga).
As a young man, Tweed Bryant would walk around the house reciting with gusto from William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”:
So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Tweed Bryant is survived by his daughter Marsha Bryant, her husband Camden Pierce, and their son Nicholas Pierce; by his son Barry Bryant, his wife Jennifer Richardson Bryant, and their children Matthew Bryant and Joshua Bryant; and by his nieces and nephews in the Bryant and Bradshaw families.
He is also survived by his bridges and the many who will traverse them.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 12 at 11:00 a.m. at Germantown United Methodist
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations in Tweed Bryant’s honor to: the
Music Fund
Germantown United Methodist Church
2331 South Germantown Road
Germantown, TN 38138 or, to St Jude Children's Research Hospital
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