Please, Quit Knocking Detroit

Charles continually took English and writing classes from the first days he came to the U.S. He practiced by writing short speeches for his work and professional activities. It didn’t matter that he already spoke and wrote six other languages fluently. It was important to Charles that he mastered language number seven. He had strong feelings and opinions about the world, his life and human behavior and he wanted to be able to express them well. He eventually improved his skills enough to write speeches for engineering conferences, short stories, letters to the editor, get two bachelors degrees and one masters degree and to even write his own memoir.

When  Charles immigrated to Detroit in 1956 he in time claimed it as his adopted hometown. He spent many hours downtown managing the construction of Cobo Hall, Detroit’s convention center.  He managed many renovations and additions to the Henry Ford Hospital in the New Center area and worked with Minoru Yamasaki on the Chrysler Styling Plant in Highland Park  Charles’ last assignment before retirement was as quality assurance manager for the Detroit People Mover. By then the city was struggling for survival and no one cheered for its comeback more than Charles. He came to the defense of his town as you can see in the thoughts he expressed in his  “Letter to the Editor” written to one of Detroit’s newspapers in the mid-1980s. I found this clipping in Charles’ papers.