Robert M. “Evy” Cheston III, a Hyatt Hotel sales manager and outdoorsman, died by suicide June 18 at his West River home. He was 27.
“Evy was just such an effervescent, wonderful and seemingly happy young man. He always seemed so upbeat,” said Nelson Coffin, a longtime family friend and former sports editor of the Towson Times. “This tragedy has thrown us all for a loop because we all loved him so dearly.
It’s been so difficult,” Mr. Coffin said. “He was a very genuine person and such a great kid, and we’re going to miss him.
” Robert Murray Cheston III, the son of Robert M. Cheston Jr., a retired insurance executive, and Dr.
Sally B. Cheston, a radiation oncologist, was born in Baltimore and raised at home on the Rhode River. A 2014 graduate of the Key School in Annapolis, he played lacrosse and ran track.
In 2014, he was presented the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association All-Conference Award for lacrosse. Mary M. Truitt, his English teacher, was formerly on the Key School faculty.
“He was just wonderful and whenever he walked into a room, he always wanted everyone around him to feel comfortable,” Ms. Truitt said. “Whenever he smiled, the sun came out.
He was very poetic and he always saw the beauty in things, not the negative,” Ms. Truitt said. “He always had a very poignant take on whatever I was teaching, poetry or novels.
” After graduating from Key, he attended the University of Mississippi. Mr. Cheston began his career in the hospitality industry as a guest services coordinator at the Inn at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville.
“For those of you who did not have the privilege to know Evy, he was an extraordinary gentleman who brought immense joy to those around him,” Dereck Janes, president and CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club, wrote in an email. Related Articles “His kindness, warmth, and positive spirit touched all of us, and he will be deeply missed. We had the honor of calling him a colleague from July 2017 to January 2020, and a true friend for as long as we have known him,” he wrote.
At his death, Mr. Cheston was a sales manager at the Hyatt Hotel in the Inner Harbor. “He was one of their top producers and was well-liked,” his mother said.
“And one of his jobs was training new people.” The center of Mr. Cheston’s life was his home where he grew up on Cumberstone Road alongside the Rhode and West rivers.
His interests included gardening and the metaphysical. “He held his vast knowledge humbly, but shared when asked, with his knowledge and interpretations blossoming forth in third and fourth dimensions; a poet prompting words to sing as he prompted flowers to bloom,” his mother wrote in a biographical profile. Mr.
Cheston volunteered for the Key School’s outdoor education program and as a Latin scholar, enjoyed tutoring Latin students. He was a fisherman and wildfowl hunter. “He liked sitting in the blind and observing sunrises and watching the birds while cooking bacon and making breakfast in the blind,” his mother said, in a telephone interview.
A world traveler, he went to Florence, Italy, to study architecture, Italian and Italian culture, family members said. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m.
Oct. 19 at Christ Episcopal Church at 220 Owensville Road in West River. In addition to his parents, he is survived by three brothers, Edward M.
Cheston, of Vietnam, James Cheston, of Durham, North Carolina, and John B. Cheston, of Brooklyn, New York; two sisters, Marjorie M. Cheston, of West River, and Elizabeth D.
Cheston, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming; and several uncles, aunts and cousins..
