Mimi Hennessy (1963)

I  remember Charlie in high school as a football player but i didn't know him.  I had to good fortune to get to be friends with him many years later when a group of us, Janet Torncello, Nancy Laurence, Tino Pagone, Charlie and myself, started walking together, first at the Rose bowl and later at the arboretum.  During that time I got to know the Charlie who had put himself through college, become an Army Ranger, traveled all over Europe on his motorcycle, loved and left numerous girls, and come home to be a Kindergarten teacher!  He was an avid reader and amassed an astonishing (and valuable) collection of usually signed first editions, traveling to book fairs in various places, drinking at the bar with George Martin, and others.  If we wanted to know what was good, what was on the Mann-Booker short list, who got what prize, we had only to ask Charlie.  He was private, could be prickly, but was an amazing, smart, caring person.  He is missed.

Janet Kessler (Torncello) (1963)

Charlie will have been gone one year end of next month. As a regular guest at my family's home I still expect him to turn up with a cake on holidays. Charlie was fiercely private and loyal. He loved young violinists (especially women), authors and travel. He was truly a renaissance man. Along with Bertha his sister, he skated in Roller Derby. He played football and baseball in high school and football at University of Santa Barbara.  He owned a home in New Mexico he rented out but frequently visited. He loved his mom deeply and was her frequent companion during her last years. When he told me of the cancer diagnosis in April of last year he stressed he had lived a full, long and happy life, then with the help of Bertha died as he lived-with dignity. I miss him Janet