He was Mr. Fix-It to family, friends and neighbors. He also took excellent care of his wife of 50-plus years and his three rambunctious boys. Fourteen years later, he was surprised by a bouncing baby girl, to whom he was Daddy Daycare.

Charles Camp of Charlotte died July 10, 2011 of lung cancer. He was 72 and a Forest City native.

When Charles came to Charlotte in the late 1950s, a friend introduced him to Esther Munday.

“I knew his family,” she recalled, “and we immediately took to each other. We went to a movie the next week and were married in 1960.”

They were blessed with sons Charles, Kenneth and Gregory and much later with daughter Tiffany. The boys provided nine grandchildren along the way.

“He took good care of me and bought me a yellow and green 1971 Ford LTD when I went back to school to study nursing,” his wife said. Esther used that career choice later when Charles became ill. “He didn’t let me know how sick he was,” she said.

He could fix anything

“He was easygoing – some said he was the calm behind the storm - and he kept up with everything in the neighborhood,” Esther said. “He would go across the street and put ladies’ garbage cans back for them. He could fix anything and did repairs and roofing after he retired.”

In earlier years Charles had been a waiter for 17 years at the old Epicurean Restaurant on East Boulevard. He also worked for a printing company and had a little printing business of his own when that company left town.

“He loved to work on things,” said his son Kenneth. “He was not a mechanic; he was a ‘Jack of all trades.’ If he couldn’t fix it, then it couldn’t be fixed.”

Son Gregory said his dad was “my go-to guy and helped me run my companies. We had a transportation company, and he made sure all my vehicles and buses ran properly. He had one of the best mechanical minds I know about, and I relied on him for direction. He was a major part of my survival in business.”

When his boys were young, Charles coached them in Westover Hills Little League ball games, but his first love was golf.

“He said he’d had 6 holes-in-one and was a fixture at the Revolution Golf Course on weekends,” Kenneth said. “He claimed to have made six holes-in-one (two were registered) and that he had given golf lessons to Michael Jordan.”

Daddy Daycare

“He was my daycare, my teacher, coach, dad and chauffeur,” daughter Tiffany said. “He took care of me after school and summers. He took me to the golf course and taught me to play golf when I was two or three years old. He was my first coach and his passion was golf. He wanted me to play at a higher level, but I got only as far as junior high.

“My dad was the guy who taught me addition and subtraction with playing cards,” she added. “I was fortunate to spend time with him growing up – he was always fun. I’d watch him run the printing press, we’d hang out and play games.

Tiffany said her dad was a major factor in her decision to study engineering: “He was always building or fixing, and I thought that was pretty neat. I finished my doctorate a year ago and he came to see me graduate from Clemson University.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we’d all had a Daddy Daycare like that?

***
Editor's note: This is our series called Lives That Matter. Written by Charlotte writer Gerry Hostetler, this weekly feature will profile individuals, recently deceased, who had a positive impact on those around them.

Got news to share with Qcity readers? Email us at editor@qcitymetro.com.
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