Charlie Spratt’s long battle with kidney failure and its aftermath has ended.

A second transplant, upon which he’d placed much hope during the past five years, had failed. He left the hospital on April 3rd, preferring to spend his final days at home, with friends and family close by. He died peacefully on April 10th.

Charlie’s career in soaring began more than 40 years ago, when he showed up at the Chester SC airport to take a ride in a 2-22. He was soon attending contests, where he saw a need for his services at the start gate. His skill at that job made him a contest fixture, and in time he graduated to the role of Competition Director, at which he excelled.

Along the way, his instinctive understanding of human nature and ability to command the respect and friendship of nearly everyone he met made him perhaps the best-known face in US soaring, familiar to just about every active soaring person in the country (and many around the world). He served as an SSA Director for more than 10 years. He was elected to the Soaring Hall of Fame in 1993.

A remembrance and celebration of Charlie’s life is being planned for Saturday 9 May 2009, during the practice period of the 15-Meter National Championship Contest in Cordele, GA. We encourage all his soaring friends to attend.

If you can make it, please click here and supply your information (planning this event requires that we have a good idea how many to expect). If you need to arrange nearby accommodations, please click here for info.

If you have a “Charlie story” or photo that you would like to share, please e-mail it to spratt.stories@gmail.com. Although we are sure there will not be enough time to read them all (that would take a week) we plan to choose a few to be told at this event; all will be posted to a website afterwards. Please do this even if you have posted something to RAS or another forum.