Thursday, December 23, 2021
The words and thoughts about Charlie come with love from Brian Kroker and Jeff Bookman. Charlie referred to us as his oldest friends.
The three of us met 46 year ago, as incoming freshman at Drexel University in 1975. We were just 18 years old and became fast friends. We were often referred to as The Three Musketeers! We did everything together, including pledging TEP fraternity together. It was there that we became brothers and sealed our fate as forever friends. We lived together at the TEP house, we partied together, went on double dates, we went to Disney World, and we skied together. Charlie knew how to laugh (especially at his own jokes) and how to have fun.
Charlie was also very serious about school. The three of us majored in accounting so we took the same classes and we studied together as well. Charlie studied hard. He was super smart, probably smarter than the two of us put together! Our professors loved him as he always seemed to have well thought out questions and strong opinions based in facts from what we were learning.
Charlie was very competitive, both in school and in the interfraternity sports. He especially loved to play football on our fraternity team. He was as good at that as he was in our classes.
Charlie was a good friend, he gave his time freely to help us with our studies and was quick to defend us when someone was a bully or out of line. But what we loved most about Charlie was how much he inspired us. Specifically, he inspired us to study hard, learn more, get better grades and to live life to the fullest. He set high standards for himself which rubbed off on everyone around him.
Throughout college and the years thereafter Charlie inspired us to be better. He made us better friends by staying in touch, going the extra mile to make plans to be together and to share our lives. He inspired us to stay close by knowing what was important to us, and truly caring about the things we cared about ourselves. And Charlie inspired us to live life to the fullest, be present, enjoy each day and to be the mensch that he, himself was.
Dr. Suess is credited for saying “don’t be sad because it’s over, be happy because it happened. However, I can’t find a way to get there right now. Charlie was taken far too soon. He had so much more to do and to give. We will always keep Charlie, who he was and what he taught us, alive in our hearts. And we know that his memory will be a blessing to all that knew and were lucky enough to call him a friend.
For Charlie I’ll conclude with TEPS ARE TOPS!
