Charles F. Hawk
Published June 12, 2013
Charles F. Hawk
March 10, 1948 – June 12, 2013
Charles “Charlie” Hawk died suddenly of an apparent heart attack on June 12, 2013.
Charles was born in Palo Alto, California, on March 10, 1948, to Dr. Malcolm Hawk and Margaret Lytle Hawk. He attended elementary school in Palo Alto, and graduated from Palo Alto High School before joining the U.S. Navy in 1966. He served 19 months in Vietnam on Navy supply ships.
He received a B.A. in Social Sciences from Chico State University in California, then spent several months traveling the country before deciding to become a travel agent. To prepare for his career, he took more courses at Chico State, worked in travel agencies in the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago to learn more about the industry, and then took a job at Holiday House in Seattle.
In 1978, Charles married Rosemary Briere of Renton, Washington. They lived in North Seattle and Edmonds before building a waterfront home on Bainbridge Island in 1988, which they occupied for the rest of their lives. Rose died earlier this year, on March 4, just eight weeks before their 35th anniversary.
In 1980, Charles and business partner Ken Noreen opened their own travel agency, Broad View Travel, which specialized in concert tours for amateur and non-profit music groups. The agency arranged performances throughout the world in addition to normal travel aspects of the tours. One of Charles’s proudest achievements was to plan a European tour for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir that involved chartering two 747 airplanes and a cruise ship.
Charles managed Broad View Travel until he retired in 1998, and then built a second career of investing in commercial real estate in the Puget Sound area and beyond. He loved to cook, read and travel, and visited more than 120 countries during his life, including all seven continents and the North Pole. His favorite form of travel was cruising, a passion that began with his Navy service. He always maintained that not even a really bad cruise line like the U.S. Navy could discourage his love of cruising.
Charles is survived by his brother, Malcolm David Hawk, of Houston, Texas.
A private memorial service will be held at a later date. Memorial donations can be made to Bainbridge Parks and Recreation or the charity of your choice.
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