Charlie spent 30 years in the Air Force, but has an unusual perspective.  He entered the military as a Private in January of 1942, just after Pearl Harbor in early December of 1941.  He got out in 1948 and went back to school to earn a degree.  Then he entered the Air Force again during the Korean War,  working his way up through almost every grade – from Enlisted to Warrant Officer to Officer – and retired at the rank of Lt. Colonel.  His assignment was to teach medical personnel (who were civilians) “how to salute and shoot” – in other words how to be soldiers.  He spent 12 years overseas.

Charlie is a strong believer in education, and eventually earned a degree from St. Mary's University, and Master's Degrees from both Our Lady of the Lake University and Trinity University, plus some graduate hours from the U of Alaska and SW Texas State University.

I sat down and talked with Charlie in the Resource Center the other day, trying to isolate the essence of his life.  I discovered a multi-faceted life, with a wide variety of interests and experiences.

This man is an archeologist, for example, and an experienced one.  He has studied and visited among others: the Mayan ruins in Chiapas, Mexico and in Guatemala, and the pyramids in Egypt.   He is also a gemologist, and has made and sold jewelry and done wire wrapping and faceting.

Then I found out something totally unexpected. Charlie's strongest interest nowadays seems to be in ballroom dancing.  Not just occasionally, but 2 or 3 nights a week, and with several local clubs, and even in competition.  He claims that he and his wife of 52 years are especially adept at the waltz, the rumba, and the cha cha.

Next we talked about Charlie's life with computers.  He started with a Commodore VIC, then worked up through Tandy models 3 and 4, and up to DOS 6.2.  One home machine now has Win95 on it and the other has Win98.  His latest project is seeing what all he can do with a scanner he just bought.

Charlie enjoys working at the desk in the Resource Center, and if you come by on a Monday morning, you'll find him there helping at the desk.  One of his concerns is that we always need more volunteers in that location.