Chuck grew up in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Fort Cherry High School in 1963. Always full of energy in the mornings, he entertained a busload of students on the way to school.

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in July 1963 and served with India Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Division in Vietnam. On March 6, 1966, Chuck was killed by small arms fire in Quang Ngai Province. He was the first of 67 young men from Washington County to die in the Vietnam War.

His memory lives on through his family, friends, and fellow Marines, and on panel 5E, line 127 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.