Work and Careers
I began my working life at 16, in 1957, when I went to work as a stock and clean up boy for McCrory-McLellan (a retailer called in those days a “Five and Dime Store”). I worked part time for the time it took to finish high school in 1959 and complete my AAS degree at State University of New York (SUNY) at Farmingdale 1n 1961. In September 1961 I took a job at Lever Brothers R&D center in Edgewater New Jersey, left my parents’ home, and went out on my own. I worked at Lever as a laboratory technician and then a product-testing supervisor for the six years it took to get my BS in Chemistry at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck NJ. I worked 40 hours per week and went to college at night. After graduating, I changed jobs and companies to J.R. Geigy Chemical Company in Ardsley NY working as a research chemist. I married Terry Lee Perrone from West New York, New Jersey and we moved to Rockland County, NY. I soon realized if I wanted to get far with a career in chemistry I would have to get both a Masters and a Ph.D. I believed that was too much educational work so; I decided to change my educational direction from science to business and studied for an MBA in Marketing at Iona College’s Graduate Division of Business in New Rochelle, NY. When I got my masters, in June 1970, I was immediately assigned the job of coordinating the CIBA-Geigy Chemicals Division move from Ardsley, NY to Greensboro, North Carolina. The division and my family moved to Greensboro in late 1973. By this time Terry and I had two children, Keith born in 1970 and Melanie born in 1972. After the relocation finished, I was assigned a job as Business Planner for the Dye and Chemicals Division of CIBA-Geigy Corp. In 1975 the company embarked on a major program to acquire companies to expand our division’s business. I was selected to lead this team as Acquisition Coordinator. During this acquisition program, we purchased two businesses and one product line. In March 1977 I became a Christian and later in the year later Terry also became a Christian. I was 35 years old. The story of my conversion to Christ from a hardcore Atheist is in my testimony in Appendix 2. When the acquisition program finished in 1978, I moved to Greenville, SC as Information Systems Director in one of the companies we had acquired. We returned to Greensboro, NC in 1980 and I became Manager of Customer Service. I managed Customer Service until 1988 when I became Manager of Business Planning. I took a retirement package from CIBA-Geigy in 1994. During my years with CG, at the various times, I managed between 2 and 35 people. When working in acquisitions and customer service, I often flew 4 to 8 airplane flights a week. In 1990, while still working full time, I joined the board of Caldwell Academy, A Classical Christian School founded in 1988. After I had retired, in 1996, I resigned from the Caldwell Board so I could teach Dialectic Science (Middle School) for one year. From 1996 until 1999 I led weekly science assembly programs at Caldwell. In 1997 I went to work for Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham’s ministry, for two years, leading programs with both children’s workshops and adult seminars. Starting in 1995 for almost a decade I produced a one-hour, weekly, public access TV show on Greensboro Community Television (GCTV) using footage shot from my seminars and workshops. Immediately after I retired in 1994, I began a single proprietorship business called Creation, Dinosaurs and thE Flood (CDEF). CDEF hosted workshops and seminars selling books and videos at these programs and 3-4 homeschool conventions each year. Credit card processing was a part of CDEF’s operations. CDEF also had a website http://www.sixdaycreation.com that posted my GCTV videos and answered questions from web surfers. In 2001 I gave up selling books and sold only video products until 2011 when the business was liquidated. In August 2004 I began teaching business courses at Davidson County Community College including; Principles of Management, Introduction to Business, Business Law, Principles of Marketing, Study Skills, Student Success Strategies and other business subjects. While at DCCC I worked with both BlackBoard and Moodle learning platforms. During my time at DCCC, I won 2 academic prizes for excellence in teaching, including a grant for $3,000. I began work as fiction and non-fiction author in 2012.
Charlie’s Many Different Careers
Company Career Start End
McCrory-McLellan Stock and Clean-up Boy 1957 1961
State University NY AAS Chemical Technology 1959 1961
Lever Brothers R&D Laboratory Technician 1961 1964
Lever Brothers R&D Product Testing Supervisor 1964 1967
Fairleigh Dickenson BS in Chemistry 1961 1966
J.R. Geigy Co. Research Chemist 1967 1970
Iona, Grad Division MBA Marketing & Econometrics 1967 1970
CIBA-Geigy Co Greensboro Relocation Coordinator 1970 1973
CIBA-Geigy Co Business Planner D&C Division 1973 1975
CIBA-Geigy Co D&C Acquisition Team Leader 1975 1978
Jesus Christ’s Church Became a Christian 3/20/1977 1977 Eternity
Charles S Tanner Co Information Systems Director 1978 1980
CIBA-Geigy Co Customer Service Manager 1980 1988
CIBA-Geigy Co Business Planning Manager 1988 1994
CIBA-Geigy Co Retired, November 1994 1994
Creation, Dinosaurs &thE Flood (CDEF) Workshops, Youth “Talk Back” and Seminars
Sole Proprietor Business 1994 2011
GSO Community TV Produced Weekly TV 1995 2005
Caldwell CC Academy Board Member 1996 1998
Answers in Genesis Seminar/Workshop Leader 1997 1999
Caldwell CC Academy Science Teacher, Gr 1-8 1998 2001
Davidson CC College Adjunct Business Subjects Instructor 2004 Present
Independent Author Fiction/Non-Fiction Author 2012 Present
Published 1st Book Always Be Ready to Give an Answer! 2105
Published 2nd Book ANSWERS For: “The Hope That Is In You” 2015
Published 5 Kindle Stories Helene, Yellowstone’s Child, One Android 399 Lives, Rosemarie & The Memory Tree 2016
Published 3rd Book Without 3 Miracles Darwin’s DEAD! 2017
Convert to KDP All books & stories 2018
Liebert Annals 3 Volumes and Book 2016 2018
Publish 4th Book My Christian Children’s Education 2018
Publish 5th Book God’s Created Creatures Wreck Evolution 2018
Publish 12 more books Written by Charlie 2018 2022
Publish 17 books – Written by other authors 2015 2022
Charlie can be contacted at “charlie@sixdaycreation.com”, 336-337-4975 (call or text).
