He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in January this year. You can read the journey here much better than I could ever type it out and even now all donations would be greatly appreciated to help with medical expenses. It's been a very rough year for this to happen, made even more tumultous with Covid taking over the medical industry and delaying any possible trials and treatments that could have be greatly beneficial and at the very least helped delay things. Chuck was an early wake-up call for me when it came to Covid and his inability to do much besides occassionally go to a store because of the rampant spread of this deadly virus really showed the importance of wearing a mask, social distancing, and doing our best to keep people that could be compromised by this illness as safe as possible.
We met in the fall of 2010. I'm not going to lie in a way I kind of stalked Chuck before we met. He was in the Milwaukee Bucks Squad 6 fan group for it's initial season and I thought that group was the coolest thing ever. After the Fear the Deer season ended, there became talks about doing a sneaky Squad 6 invasion road trip to Indiana for a Bucks game against the Pacers to show-up their Squad 6 knock-off that he was organizing. I believe I had talked to Chuck online at that point and then awkwardly went up to him after a pre-season game to get more details on how to go on this trip. I legit thought he was so cool, it turns out I was right. We sat near him in the front of the bus on the trip and quickly became very good friends. With Chuck's help, Julie and I were able to join the Squad officially a few weeks later and I stood next to Chuck for nearly the entire season, well at least until an ankle he twisted playing basketball of all things sidelined him to the end of the row so he could sit down.
During the next few years, our friendship really grew. Despite living an hour away Chuck and Andrea came to our house nearly every week for Friday Night Game Nights. He would usually come straight from a closing and even scan closing papers on the kitchen table. After a while of doing that we started to go down to their apartment and then house to have more game nights, to watch Packers or Bucks games, and sometimes just hang out and eat some delicous food. It was because of Chuck that we were able to make some magnificient friends along the way as well.
While selfishly I wish I could have spent more time with Chuck over recent years, I was always happy that Andrea and him were able to do what they loved to do, see the world and live closer to their family. I wish I could have seen him one more time and we would talk about getting together post-Covid. Sadly, he's gone far too early and will look back fondly on how great of a man Chuck was. You'll always be one of my best friends.
While selfishly I wish I could have spent more time with Chuck over recent years, I was always happy that Andrea and him were able to do what they loved to do, see the world and live closer to their family. I wish I could have seen him one more time and we would talk about getting together post-Covid. Sadly, he's gone far too early and will look back fondly on how great of a man Chuck was. You'll always be one of my best friends.
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