Mr. And Mrs.Hugo, Cornelius, Family and Friends,
I would like to introduce you to Chuck’s iTAC family where he lived and worked during the day. Chuck was our son, our brother and a wonderful friend. Larry Robertson hired Chuck to work as a Help Desk Consultant in 2000. Chuck was consult17. As the students will tell you, Chuck was our encyclopedia. I came to know Chuck in August of 2001.
One of the things Chuck thought I could do to improve iTAC was to sponsor LAN parties. He even thought people would pay money to attend. It took me awhile before I realized that he did not mean a live band and beer.
In the fall, we asked the students to come up with the top 10 reasons for downloading some antivirus software that could be publicized around campus. Chuck’s contribution was “Do you know where your floppies have been?” One of the staff decided despite Chuck’s great humor, that entry was not ready for the campus community. If you watch the university cable channel, the toned down version will appear, “Do you know where your floppy has been?”
Around December we had an iTAC end of the year lunch. This lunch is where Chuck taught me that the most important section in the student newspaper was the Forum. For some reason a female reporter was lamenting the lack of decent, handsome men on campus. Chuck told me he wanted to call into the Forum and leave the message, “all the cute men are in iTAC” and observe the consequences. I read the Forum religiously after that. Chuck was right, you can learn a lot from the Forum.
In July, Chuck’s position in ITAC changed to Media Development Center Student Coordinator. We reeled Chuck in before his best friend, Juan, recruited him to another department on campus. His job along with his coworker, Andy, was to get the Media Development Center up and running for fall semester. We were almost to the finish line. When we talked about the position, I believe he was less concerned about the hourly wage and more concerned about the computer “they” needed. When I couldn’t purchase a computer for them, he and Andy configured one with lots of guts but no cover.
About two weeks ago, Chuck told me that he was taking a vacation. This was his last chance before school started. To my surprise Chuck showed up at a meeting we had in iTAC for all students last Thursday. When I said, I thought you were on vacation…he said, “the meeting was mandatory”. That was Chuck.
On Monday, Chuck talked a length to Phyllis Epps about the future, the classes he was enrolled in, and he finally had it figured out. He had combined his art with what he was doing at work. He had already started learning 3D animation software and mastered much of the video software; he was a critical/integral part of our team. Chuck was always quick to help whether it was faculty or staff and provided gentle and unassuming guidance.
Chuck was full of promise and laid back energy for the fledgling artist that he was and the one that he was to become.
Mr., Mrs. Hugo and Cornelius, we wanted to give you a little piece of what we came to know and love about Chuck. I find solace that Charles “Chuck” Hugo was a wonderful employee and more importantly an extraordinary young man. iTAC is a better place because Chuck shared our space, brightened our world, fixed our MACs, configured our Media Development Center and worked along side all of us. One of our video editing stations will be known as the Charles “Chuck” Hugo video editing station. In addition, the students have built a website to honor Chuck’s memory. His picture graces the newly launched iTAC website. I believe this semester that we can all figure out a way to have a Chuck Hugo Memorial LAN party. And yes, maybe we could charge a little money for that.
We miss terribly his boyish smile and gentle presence.