Just learned that Charles Felix died last December

Charles Felix was a good friend of Green Gulch and a pleasure to know and my wife Katrinka knew him quite well because she managed the Pelican Inn for ten years - after he'd sold but he remained involved. We also visited with him later at his Sonoma home. I find no photo of Charles on the web or mention of him on the inn site, but many of us remember him fondly. - dc

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December 14, 2016

Charles Felix, 87, was an icon in the Bay Area for his creation of the Pelican Inn, at Muir Beach. He based his work on his home in England. He learned art at the RAF just after the war, and held art direction jobs from Canada to Japan. He was a partner in the San Francisco ad agency Burger, Felix & Wood for 20 years, with major clients in Silicon Valley. He is survived by his wife Frances, in Sonoma, and four children in the Bay Area.

Published in San Francisco Chronicle on Mar. 5, 2017 - they didn't learn till later eitherAnother old Zen Center friend, author Herb Gold, wrote the following about Charles and the Pelican Inn in the NY Times in 1984:The only place for food, drink and lodging in Muir Beach is the Pelican Inn, a traditional English country lodging place - restored by A.F. of L. Druid carpenters a few years ago - which reproduces the Tudor style with a perfection of detail worthy of M-G-M in its glory days. There are six bedrooms, the Pelican Bar, which includes, of course, a dart board, in case you are an R.A.F. hero of the Battle of Britain whiling away your senior years; also afternoon tea, rough-hewn banquet room with fireplace, photographs of the Queen and, surrounding the Inn, pines, alders, honeysuckle, jasmine, towering redwoods, indignant ecologists.

Charles Felix, owner, is a genuine white- mustached English host, and keeps things crisp, brisk and cordial, with some of his bartenders and serving ladies seemingly graduates of Berlitz English Accent training. A stroll on the beach, a lunch of bangers, a dinner of chops at the Pelican Inn is a popular instant vacation for knowledgeable San Fran- ciscans. On weekends, the lawns and glassed- in patio are crowded. Even Frisbees have been known to be transported from town for use on the lawn or beach.