PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Charles Mansfield Cobb, 85, passed away peacefully at Monadnock Community Hospital from a long battle with cancer on Thursday, August 7, 2025, surrounded by his loving family, as he would refer to as “Charlie’s Angels.”

Charlie was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, N.Y., and raised just outside of New York City in Short Hills and Ridgewood, N.J. He attended Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., and obtained a masters degree in engineering before joining President John F. Kennedy’s first wave of Peace Corps volunteers in 1961. Stationed in Chiang Mai, Thailand for two years, Charlie worked with several indigenous hill villages, helping them to build a bridge with assistance from elephants further creating a thriving local cottage industry that enabled them to support themselves by developing commerce with a more modern Thailand.

Upon his return to the United States, Charlie joined the US Army’s Intelligence Service and was stationed on Governors Island, N.Y. After completing active duty, Charlie then joined International Business Machines (IBM) as a corporate liaison selling some of IBM’s earliest room-sized computers, when he met and married his wife, Dudley Germaine Cobb. He later joined her family’s real estate business and her antiques business.

In 1974, Charlie and Dudley moved their antiques business to Hancock, N.H., into their second historic home, a circa 1790 cape with a dining room painted by the famous itinerate artist and inventor Rufus Porter. Their dining room was, with their permission, recreated for the Rufus Porter Museum as one of the best intact examples of his work to have survived. Preserving and restoring this home in addition to growing their antiques business became their full-time work.

In 1980, the Cobbs purchased 83 Grove Street in downtown Peterborough to house their growing business and while at this location began holding auctions. In 1987, they formally became The Cobbs Auctioneers. Charlie and his wife then purchased their fifth historic and largest building (Noone Falls Mill) in 1998 to move the growing business and formally transitioned from buying and selling to representing at auction only.

Charlie donated his services to dozens of New Hampshire charitable organizations, such as Jaffrey Civics Center, Peterborough Players and Monadnock Music for over four decades in the capacity of auctioneer and as an antiques appraiser.

Those who knew Charlie will remember him for his infectious laugh, outgoing and welcoming personality and his passion for golf at Brentwood Country Club and tennis at Monadnock Tennis Club and Hancock town courts.

Charlie is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dudley; his daughter, Lara, and son-in-law Randy Lowenberg; his two beloved granddaughters, Ella Lowenberg and Kyra Murphy, along with Kyra’s husband Keith.

“I’ll be seeing you, In all the old familiar places, That this heart of mine embraces, All day through” –Billie Holiday

In lieu of flowers, please donate to Monadnock Community Hospital in Charlie’s name.