Charlie grew up on the east side of Saginaw and became involved with sports as a participant in the city recreation track meets. He also was a softball player for Davis Drugs and played knothole hardball for Coates’ Tire. He attended Webber Junior High and Saginaw High School where he excelled in football, wrestling and track. The 1968 SHS football team was ranked in the top 5 in Class ‘A’ state rankings losing only one game to the state champions, Midland. He played running back and inside linebacker. He was named to every Allstate football team that year including the Detroit Free Press Dream Team. He also ran track and qualified for the state meet in the long-jump and 100 yd dash. He was named SHS most valuable athlete after being awarded MVP in track and sharing the honors with Ben Haller and Carl Ruth in football.
At Central Michigan University, Charlie was a three year letter winner in football and was voted MVP by his teammates. He was also a 3rd team Little-All-American while setting and holding the CMU single season yardage record at 1,513 for 22 years until Brian Pruitt ( AHHS) broke it in 1994. He was inducted into the CMU Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Charlie also participated in slo-pitch softball and was named to the Grand Blanc All Star teams in 1979 and 1980.
After graduation from CMU with chemistry major, Charlie began his career with IBM in Sales and Marketing and retired as Vice President of Solution Sales. He currently is the President of the Arnold Center, Inc. a non profit located in Midland and Gladwin, Michigan.
