The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle

Author:David Von Drehle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2023-05-23T00:00:00+00:00

Charlie treasured those sentences for eighty-seven years. He often mentioned their unusually warm tone as the decades wore on. The letter was nearby when he breathed his last. His mother believed in him, had joy in him, and Charlie had taken the high road, as she had hoped.

He played the game.

seven

Charlie was somewhere between boyhood and manhood, on the strange frontier of adolescence, when Lyle Willits started coming around the Campbell Street house to court Charlie’s oldest sister. There was something quite winning about Willits, because Charlie’s sister was not the only one to fall under the spell of his charm. So did Charlie.

Willits was nine years older than Charlie, at a time in life when nine years is everything, especially to a fatherless boy in need of footsteps to follow. The importance of this friendship and role modeling can be seen in the fact that Charlie began to build his future on the blueprint of his oldest brother-in-law. Willits was a young doctor, which made Charlie believe he could be a doctor, too. Willits was a graduate of the medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago. So, as his undergraduate career approached its end, Charlie also set his sights on Northwestern. To his dismay, Northwestern turned Charlie down.

What happened next was pure Charlie White. His rejection was a hard blow, but it did not leave him powerless. The disappointment could be turned into a challenge, a chance to test his own strength. He boarded a train for Chicago, found his way to Evanston, and located the office of the medical school dean. Though he had no appointment, Charlie announced himself at the desk and sat down to wait until the dean would see him.

I picture the baffled look on the dean’s face when his assistant informed him that a persistent young man from Missouri had planted himself in the waiting room. Evidently, curiosity got the better of the man, because Charlie was ushered into the dean’s office. Talking fast, Charlie explained why turning him away was a mistake. Perhaps Lyle Willits gave him a pep talk, encouraging Charlie to feel that he was up to the rigors of Northwestern. Certainly he went armed with his record at Missouri as evidence of his study habits. Whatever Charlie said, it worked. He talked his way in.

My kids and I have argued on this score. They tell me that no one gets ahead through face-to-face contacts anymore. Job hunting, networking, and the pursuit of opportunity all happen online. You fill out an electronic form, post a digital resume, click the button, and accept your fate. But I’m not sure I believe it. Technology changes, but people don’t. The human touch will always matter. An earnest young person confidently making a case is as powerful today as a century ago. Maybe it is no longer possible to talk your way into an elite medical school. But you can still be your own best advocate. No one else can do it as well. As for the risk of rejection—Charlie had already been rejected.

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