
Charles Nicholas Sweet passed away peacefully on Friday, January 17,2025 at Pennswood Village in Newtown, Pennsylvania where he had resided for ten years. Chuck was 80 years old. He was predeceased by his parents Charles and Phyllis Sweet, his sisters Rebecca Hendershot and Sharon Morrow. He is survived by his three daughters, Robin Cagle, Rebecca Winters (Tomas Rossant) and Sarah Winters (Brendan Carr), his brother David Sweet (Kathy) and six grandsons, Luca, Oliver, Nathaniel, Noah, Benjamin and Samuel. He is also survived by his former wife and good friend, Kay Sweet.
Chuck was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he graduated from Central High School and The University of Minnesota (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). Chuck served in the U.S. Army from 1965-1967. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School (Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif) in 1972 and immediately began his distinguished career in labor law. The first two decades of his career were spent at Curtin and Heefner, a firm in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. While there he developed his interest in school law related issues and practices.
In 1995, Chuck and eight colleagues established one of Pennsylvania’s first private law firms wholly dedicated to education law (https://www.sweetstevens.com/). His contributions were instrumental in terms of “firsts” for Pennsylvania labor law and helped establish his firm as a leading practice that has since served hundreds of school and municipal entities across the commonwealth.
“Chuck’s skill as a labor negotiator on behalf of school districts was legendary,” said Ellis H. Katz, his former law partner and close friend. “Both friends and foes recognized his exceptional advocacy skills. Moreover, in addition to his professional accomplishments, he was incredibly generous with his time throughout his career in helping others with the myriad of problems faced by lawyers representing school districts.”
Chuck’s accomplishments include:
- Helping to establish the first intermediate unit in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
- Negotiating several of the first collective bargaining agreements under Act 195 enacted in 1970, which established the framework of public-sector collective bargaining in Pennsylvania and gave public employees and teachers the right to strike.
- Negotiating over 600 collective bargaining agreements in Pennsylvania.
- Providing insight, recommendations, and suggestions to the Pennsylvania General Assembly that led to its adoption of Act 88 of 1992, a ground-breaking revision to Pennsylvania’s collective bargaining law, later testing and developing strategies for implementing collective bargaining under that Act.
- Serving as solicitor or labor counsel to many school districts, intermediate units and vocational-technical schools.
- Serving as chair of the Labor Relations Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and as president of the Pennsylvania School Board Solicitors Assn.
Chuck had a special place in his heart for Native American causes; in lieu of flowers the family requests contributions to be made to the Mount Sinai Health System to support Native Health Initiatives. Please include “in memory of Charles Sweet” on your check or online gift.
Mount Sinai Office of Development
One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1049
New York, NY 10029
https://giving.mountsinai.org/goto/IMOCharlesSweet