Charles, a first time novelist, is a businessman, executive and consultant. Educated at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, he retired as Vice Chairman of Acuity Brands, Inc., the world’s largest lighting corporation, in 2005 and immediately continued his career by developing six new businesses, serving on multiple boards and mentoring C-level executives.
Current personal interests include being a professional photographer and writing. Presently, he is writing a three-book series of historical novels, short stories and three business books on the art of being a business executive.
Residing in Decatur, Georgia, he is married to Cheryl Parr Darnell; is 77 years of age; and has two children and five grandchildren.
He has written extensively in business and experienced several creative writing conferences and courses. His credentials in the historical series are established by the fact that he was born and raised in the settings of the book and heard the story many times from many people. He interviewed most of the actual people involved in the true events. Most of them are now deceased, but the interview archive exists. He has researched the story for over 35 years.
The true story is set to fiction because there are so many conflicting writings about the events written by people with a personal “ax to grind.” Another non-fiction book would have added to the conflagration.