Charles Byron Taylor was born on December 12, 1944 and passed away in Lake Forest, California, on January 21, 2017, at the age of 72.
Charles was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, the middle child of Alberta and Louis Taylor. He had two sisters, Gretchen and Karen.In 1952 they moved to Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, to the home he remembered best. There he attended St. Bernard's Elementary School and South Catholic High School. At graduation he was valedictorian, having been active in drama, the rifle club, cheerleading (it was a boys' school), and won awards in original oratory and debate.
It was his penchant for taking the opposing view and debating every issue that both annoyed and intrigued his future bride when they first met. Charles met Gail Marlow in September 1962 in the University of Pittsburgh library when the eager freshmen simultaneously claimed the same book on reserve for their philosophy class. Sharing Plato's Republic was followed by coffee in the Tuck Shop and adjacent seats for the symphony. The two soon became inseparable. When Gail's family relocated to Los Angeles in January, they kept in touch with letters, phone calls, and visits, until she returned to Pitt for their senior year and they promptly became engaged.
Chuck (as Gail always called him) majored in political science and was active in student government and the SAE fraternity. He and Gail were married at Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Inglewood, California, on April 30, 1966. They honeymooned in Catalina and returned to Inglewood where they spent a few months working on the campaign for Proposition A supporting a bond issue to build Martin Luther King hospital in southeast Los Angeles. In July they went backpacking in Tuolumne Meadows and moved to Berkeley to train for a Peace Corps stint in India. But that didn't work out, so they moved back to Pittsburgh briefly and then to Kearny, New Jersey, where Chuck took a night job at a coke factory.
It was impossible to find a permanent job with the draft for the Vietnam War in full swing, so Chuck enlisted in the U.S. Navy and the two moved to Newport, Rhode Island, for 4 months of Officer Candidate School and 2 months of Justice School.In July of 1967 Chuck and Gail, now expecting their first child, took a camping trip west across Canada and then south to Long Beach, where he was assigned to a ship, the USS Belle Grove. Cheryl was born in January while Chuck's ship was on deployment to Vietnam.
The Belle Grove, a WW II Landing Ship Dock, was small enough to allow Ensign Taylor a variety of duties such as Personnel Officer, Postal Officer, and Gunnery Officer. As Legal Officer, he conducted 7 Special Courts Martial. In January 1969 he was assigned to Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Group One based in Long Beach, California. In this capacity, he was stationed in Sasebo, Japan, for six months, accompanied by Gail and Cheryl, now a toddler. At time of discharge, he had advanced to Lieutenant.
After discharge, the family moved back to Pittsburgh where Chuck earned a Master's Degree in Public Administration and Urban Executive Management in August, 1971. Returning to California, he worked as a Community Development Analyst for the City of Long Beach for four years, followed by an 18-month stint selling real estate.
In 1976 the Taylors moved to Orange County and by 1980 had added 3 sons—Geoffrey, John, and David— to their household. Not quite as nomadic as in their early years, they still managed to move four more times, from San Clemente to San Juan Capistrano, then to Rancho Santa Margarita and to Coto de Caza, and in 2016 to Freedom Village in Lake Forest.Chuck worked for Home Federal Savings and Loan from 1976 to 1983 in loan production and management. During this period he became active in community affairs, managing the Owner Built housing program conducted by Civic Center Barrio in Santa Ana, serving on their board for several years.
In 1983 Chuck was recruited by the Community Development Commission of Los Angeles County to develop an effective multi-family mortgage revenue bond program.He served the county until his retirement in 2006.
But life was not all work for Chuck—far from it! He loved to be outdoors, riding bicycles, motorcycles, and ATV's; camping, sailing, hunting, and backpacking.During the Long Beach years, he had a Cal 20 sail boat, which he, Gail, and Cheryl sailed to Catalina on weekends. In Orange County, the sailboat was replaced by a motorhome, and the Taylors enjoyed camping trips all over the West, from Yosemite to Yellowstone, Bryce and Zion to the Grand Canyon. In San Juan Capistrano the entire family rode bikes to the Mission Church and to the beach at Dana Point. There was a constant flurry of projects underway in house, garage, and yard—a shade trellis, a chicken coop, workbenches, bicycle repairs, and computer desks, for Chuck was an enthusiastic early adopter, bringing home a Tandy 1000 in 1985, right after its release at Radio Shack.
Chuck's love of reading embraced naval adventures like the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester, Louis Lamour westerns, and mysteries by Tony Hillerman and Arthur Upfield.In keeping with his love of technology, he especially loved science fiction, and ensured that classic sci fi writers like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ursula K. Le Guin were part of the family lexicon. He not only loved watching movies with the family, but discussing them and quoting them as well. He enjoyed live performances, taking children and grandchildren to plays, musicals, and opera.
In fact, Chuck had an amazing ability to include family members in his interests and projects, from building and repairing things with the children (including the ever unpopular project known as "cleaning the garage") to insisting that the grandchildren have a chance to see something of the world on trips to Budapest, Vienna, London, and Paris.He and Gail made several trips abroad with Gail's father Harry Marlow, plus trips for the two of them (Naples, Paris, Shanghai, Beijing, Berlin, Wolfenbuettel, and many more) and major family cruises to Greece and Alaska where they celebrated Gail and Chuck's50th anniversary in April 2016.
In September 2016 Chuck and Gail moved to Freedom Village, a retirement community in Lake Forest. But seven years of living with multiple myeloma had taken its toll. During his final months Chuck enjoyed getting to know our new home and neighbors and encouraged visits from friends and family over the Christmas season. He passed away peacefully, at home, surrounded by his family, on Saturday January 21, 2017, about six weeks after his 72nd birthday, celebrated with a very dramatic reading of the Christmas Carol in parts by all present.
Chuck is survived by his wife Gail, his sisters Gretchen and Karen, his children Cheryl, Geoffrey, John, and David, and ten grandchildren.He is predeceased by his parents, Louis and Alberta. His optimistic nature, his humor, compassion, and zest for life will be greatly missed by all of us. Our world will never be the same.