Trustee Raymond A. Charles, 1919-2008

Raymond A. Charles, a Life Trustee of Knox College, died April 10 in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. He was 89.

A native of Knoxville, Charles graduated from Knox College in 1941 with a major in economics. Winner of the Hunter Trophy for academic and athletic achievement, he lettered in three sports, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was a member of the Knox chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon and received the fraternity's TKE Delta Award in 1975.

Charles did graduate study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned an MBA at the University of Chicago.

Charles had a successful career as a senior executive with Prudential Insurance in New York City, and retired as a managing director of Lehman Brothers.

A member of the Knox College Board of Trustees since 1966, Charles served as Chair of the Trustee Investment Committee for many years. He was inducted into the Knox-Lombard Hall of Fame in 1988.

"Ray and his late wife, Lois, are among the very most generous donors to Knox," said Knox College President Roger Taylor. "They will be remembered for their gifts to the Raymond and Lois Charles Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Charles Colonnade in the Henry Seymour Library."

Charles is pre-deceased by his wife, Lois, of 50 years; three brothers, John Edward, William, and Harlan; and one sister, Jane Main.

He is survived by his daughter Margaret Bauer-Dwyer, son-in-law John Dwyer and granddaughter Brittney Bauer of Flemington, N.J.; son Alanson, daughter-in-law Elizabeth, and grandchildren Alana, Emma, and Joseph of Simi Valley, Calif.; sister-in-law Sylvia Futrell of West Long Branch, N.J.; two nieces; and three nephews.

A memorial service will be held at the Presbyterian Church Chapel in Morristown, New Jersey, on Saturday, April 19, at 11 a.m. Interment will be private in Knoxville, Illinois.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Presbyterian Church, Morristown.

Arrangements were made by Doyle Funeral Home, 106 Maple Ave., Morristown.

Charles' class arrived on campus in 1937; he would later serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II. "It wasn't only the Great Depression that made students of the Thirties more serious than their counterparts of the Roaring Twenties. Political events had a sobering influence, increasingly so, as the United States was drawn relentlessly into the maelstrom of World War II..." ? Raymond Charles, in a Founders Day address at Knox, February 15, 1966