June 26, 2013

FINEST HOUR 132, AUTUMN 2006

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Chuck Platt, our Vice President and friend to us all, passed away on the morning of August 5th, peacefully and surrounded by his family. He had waged a gallant battle against tremendous odds, but serious heart surgery and badly diseased lungs in the end proved insurmountable. This is a huge personal loss for many of us and deprives the Centre of a great leader. Herewith some of the words we feel.

CHARLIE

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Sometimes when a columnist sits down to write, he knows there is one topic he will write about. But sometimes circumstances dictate the subject. That’s the case today. The death of Charlie Platt, my buddy for more than sixty years, so dominates my thoughts right now that I must share some memories.

The funeral was in Denver, but because of health limitations of my own, I couldn’t be there. That hurt. I missed the chance to grieve with the family and other members of a tight-knit group of high school classmates we called, for silly reasons, the Vampires.

Each of the guys in our group of Omaha North Class of ’49, your humble servant excepted, has compiled a remarkable record of lifetime achievement. Yet it is not unfair to any of them to say that Charlie Platt was the exemplar. He was an outstanding success in the area most important to the Vampires—family. In business, he rose to chief executive officer of the Alamo Rental Car corporation. In his spare time, he provided energy and wise leadership to The Lincoln Forum, which he had helped organize, and to The Churchill Centre.

There are no details in the operation of the Lincoln and Churchill groups that Charlie didn’t worry about. The point is that he cared. He didn’t belong to impressive-sounding groups just to decorate his resume. In fact, the entire Platt family handles busy-work chores so the rest of us members can enjoy well-run meetings.

Sometime during our 50th high school reunion, when we coalesced into what had become the Vampires, I must have heard about Charlie’s involvement in the Churchill and Lincoln groups and expressed an interest. That was typical of Charlie: He signed us up as members and paid our first year’s dues himself.

The organizations are dedicated to examining the lives and times of Mr. Lincoln and Sir Winston. The members include top scholars and dedicated amateurs, and Charlie certainly qualified as the latter. He devoured each new book—and they seem to pour down on us—dealing with these two great figures. In each, Charlie was a class act, whether toasting The Queen or hiking the Gettysburg battlefield.

My earliest memories of Charlie go back to a battlefield of sorts. It was the outfield of the ball diamond at Miller Park in North Omaha, the native habitat of the Vampires. We’d play roll-in-the-dust sandlot football games there and we had a great time. Charlie always was a fine athlete, a good catcher in baseball, and a really good hockey player.

After high school, I went to Lincoln to college and Charlie, and many of the other Vampires-to-be, went to the university in Omaha.

Our paths crossed next in the small city of Norfolk, Nebraska, where I was a utility player reporter (sports, weddings, weather, whatever) and Charlie was beginning a career with General Motors Acceptance Corp. He was the catcher for the town team, and one day he hit a ball through the outfield and into the weeds on the other side of the barbed-wire fence. As the outfielder clawed at the weeds in search of the ball, Charlie was rounding the bases. In my story, I said he “chugged toward home.” He never forgot. In fact, he kept the clipping. From heaven today, I can hear him say, ” Chugged?’

Our careers led us each to Omaha, where we and our young families had a brief time together before GMAC needed Charlie somewhere else. It really wasn’t until recent years that we were able to restore the friendship of our early days. That is largely true of all the Vampires, each of whom has ties to Charlie, just as treasured as mine.

Don Pieper, Five Cities Times-Press-Recorder San Luis Obispo County, California

TOWER

Chuck was a great Churchillian and a tower of strength to The Churchill Centre. He will be sadly missed by his many friends and admirers. I send deepest sympathy and heartfelt condolences to his family and relatives.

Winston S. Churchill, Churchill Centre Trustee

GIVER

I am so sorry. Chuck did so much for The Churchill Centre. We shall miss him. My thoughts, prayers and sympathy are with his family at this time.

The Hon. Celia Sandys, Churchill Centre Trustee Partner

Winston Spencer Churchill, lamenting the death of a man who was probably his greatest friend, F.E. Smith, wrote: “Some men when they die after busy, toilsome, successful lives leave a great stock of scrip and securities, of acres or factories or the goodwill of large undertakings. F.E. banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends, and they will cherish his memory till their time is come.” And so it is with Chuck Platt.

The Churchill Centre welcomed Chuck and Linda into its midst thirteen—or as Chuck might prefer one-half score and three years ago. His obvious abilities, combined with a warm, engaging personality and generous spirit, quickly won for him legions of new friends and propelled Chuck at once into the Centre’s leadership. And there he remained.

Chuck’s far too premature departure brought a profound sadness to all who knew him. It has left a gaping hole in the Churchill Centre’s leadership, one that will take much time and more than one person to fill.

Not only was Chuck a Centre Governor and officer, but he also chaired the Audit Committee, and with skill and impressive success, managed The Centre’s investments. Chuck and Linda were most generous contributors to so many Centre activities—benefit dinners, international Conferences, Centre educational programs, the Centre’s endowment. And Chuck very effectively represented the Centre in the United States and abroad, at meetings of kindred organizations, at lectures, dinners and seminars.

It was his completely loyal, always dependable and totally unselfish service to Winston Churchill and The Churchill Centre that to me stands out from all else, and from all others. While giving so much to the Centre and to its goals, Chuck asked nothing in return—nothing at all. He was a selfless and tireless promoter of Winston Churchill and The Churchill Centre. Many of its successes are due to his active leadership.

Chuck was an absolute delight to work with— candid in expressing his opinions; totally supportive of all that was reasonable; disdainful of self-promoting hypocrites; and impatient with verbosity and indecisiveness. When requested (and typically only when requested), he was generous with his advice which was highly valued and often sought by us all.

Chuck’s family—Linda, John Murray, Annette, Murray; and grandchildren Megan, Matt, Grant and Trevor—were always at the forefront of his thoughts and he adored them all.

We faced together, over the years, many challenges and frustrations involving The Churchill Centre and its work. His tolerance and loyal support at all times were so treasured. The Centre will sorely miss him as will I, not only as an esteemed colleague, but more importantly, as a very dear friend.

Chuck Platt has now joined his two greatest heroes, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln, in God’s eternal temple. Chuck is in fine company. And, of course,so are they.

William C. Ives, Churchill Centre President

CHURCHILLIAN

I am so very sad. My dear friend, and wonderful Churchillian, Richard Fisher, also died today, this afternoon, in New York. An awful day. My heart and prayers are with both families. They are both in a better place and out of pain. I intend to start this day thinking about both men and their laughter, humor and foibles. I will only remember them with their smiles and their energy. Today we should mourn their passing and be grateful for their being. I wish you all well and know only that the pain of their loss will gradually recede and the joy of their being will fill our memories.

Laurence S. Geller Churchill Centre Co-chairman of Trustees

HUMOURIST

From all of us here in England I send our deepest sympathy to Linda and Chuck’s family. Chuck was a real stalwart, a true friend and a great Churchillian. We will miss his wise and honest counsel and his lovely dry sense of humour.

Col. Nigel Knocker OBE, Chairman International Churchill Society (United Kingdom)

FRIEND

Solveig and I have just returned from a long weekend away to this devastating news. Chuck was one of our first friends in the old ICS-USA and we shared many good times with him and Linda at conferences and other venues. Our heartfelt condolences go to Linda and family knowing that we have lost a good friend and a fine man.

Randy Barber, President International Churchill Society, Canada

NATTURALIST

We remember Chuck Platt the gentleman, giving up his umbrella on a rainy day at Minterne Magna; Chuck the historian, with his keen interest and knowledge of the Civil War, Normandy and Churchill; Chuck the counselor, with his wise business sense and ability to manage complex issues; Chuck the leader, playing important roles in The Churchill Centre and Lincoln Forum. But our favorite memory is Chuck behind the wheel of his boat, checking the osprey nests on Grand Lake, Colorado. Indeed this is tragically a rainy day.

Judith Kambestad, Churchill Centre Governor

FATHER

There are no words that adequately express one’s sadness over the loss of such a friend, but our thoughts and prayers are with his family in this time of sorrow and reflection on the life of the greatest person in your lives.

Gary Garrison, Churchill Centre Governor

ROCK

I did not know Chuck as well or for as long as others, but I liked him from the moment we were first introduced at the Lansdowne Conference in 2002. It didn’t take long for my affection and admiration for Chuck
to grow.

Chuck was a rock. In meetings, either in person or by phone, he seldom spoke, but when he did, what he had to say was exactly the right thing at the right time. I always felt better whenever Chuck was involved in a decision because I knew the decision would be sound and solid.

Apart from his position with The Churchill Centre and my duties and obligations to the Centre, I will miss him as a friend and a colleague. He was what all men strive to be: a good man.

Daniel N. Myers Churchill Centre Executive Director

“ROSE-LIPT MAIDENS—LIGHTFOOT LADS”*

Chuck’s lineage runs back to Richard Platt who landed in Milford, Connecticut, from England in 1632. “There are Platts all over England,” he said, when an English Platt asked if they were related to the Churchills. “One can’t drive down a motorway without seeing ‘Platt’ on various billboards. Since the Churchill name goes back probably farther, it would not be unusual for a Platt and a Churchill to have connected somewhere along the way.”

His ancient roots brought him to us: Chuck and Linda joined The Churchill Centre in the mid-nineties from an ad in British Heritage. It was soon evident that their interest was more than casual. They became benefactor members, then Clementine Churchill Associates, and ipso facto, as President in those days, I asked one of them (I wasn’t particular) to join the Board of Governors. Linda voted for Chuck, which cancelled out his vote, and he came aboard in early 1997.

His value as a counselor was tremendous, and when Bill Ives moved up from Vice President to President, we were all glad that Chuck was there to replace him. In this role and as a Governor Chuck supervised our endowment fund, which he built to its present health, making wise and prudent investments of the money so many had contributed, producing interest income in good times and bad that would make any investor envious. He also played critical roles in improving the business standards and practices of the organization, saving it many thousands annually. I called him “Doctor Platt,” and he would look quizzical and ask why, since he had certainly never claimed that title. I said it was because, if we had a malady we couldn’t handle, he would be called in to cure it.

The subjects we had in common spanned more than Winston Churchill. I keep a small emailing list called “Mugwumps,” to whom I send very occasional snippets, wry nonsense and political humor observed on the web. (It is not always the kind of stuff you want to issue publicly.) Chuck said, “I am happy to be a Mugwump, but what qualifies me?” I replied, “A sense of humor and a tolerance for the proclivities of the oddball sender.” He said, “Okay, I get it. I am pleased to join.”

We both liked old boats. When in a fit of temporary insanity I acquired a 1950 mahogany Chris-Craft, Chuck was keenly interested in how it performed on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire (elevation 483 feet) because, he said, “the ones with original engines are kind of sluggish here” (Grand Lake, Colorado, 8000 feet higher).

Just before he went into hospital I told him of the compliments we had received over the multi-room audio system installed in our new house, completely inspired by his own I referred to it as “the Chuck Platt Memorial Audio System,” never thinking that the joke would backfire by becoming true. In the last few months his condition worried us all, but when I left him last May, asking him to keep us posted, he was as ready for the ordeal as anyone could be, and then planned to move forward, ever forward: that was his way.

As we all must eventually, Chuck lost the last battle. We can all hope people will say half as much about us as has been said of him here. He was one of the most sterling personalities all of us ever met, not because of mental brilliance or business acumen, though he had those; not because we never disagreed, because we did, though rarely, and it passed, as Lady Soames would say, like “summer storms”—but because he was, as a friend once said of another fellow board member, “the kind of man who built this country.” Solid, reliable, principled, and honest, Chuck will be missed all the more for what he gave to a shared cause. In time the pain will fade, but for now there is much that needs fading.

With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipt maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.

By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipt girls are sleeping
Infields where roses fade.

—A. E. Housman: A Shropshire Lad

Richard M. Langworth, Editor

* The toast is from the film version of Out of Africa, based on the book with the same title by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen).