Charlie "Chuck" Brookmeyer was born on June 29, 1923, in Manhattan, New York, to parents Ida and Phillip who had emigrated to America from Austria.
Growing up, he was best friends with his twin brother Sidney and loved amateur boxing and playing stick ball. A veteran of World War II, he was stationed on an aircraft carrier off the island of Okinawa. Upon returning after the war, he was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana where he met Carolyn Marcus. They married and had two children, Pam Brookmeyer Reznick and Leslie Brookmeyer McWilliams.
After many years working around the country, he eventually settled in Tennessee, where he spent the last 29 years of his life. While here, he graduated with an associate's degree from Chattanooga State University in 1993, just before his seventieth birthday. He went on to study political science for three years at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. There he continued to play competitive racquetball and was even known to give his younger classmates a run for their money. He was a perennial jokester who loved talking about crime novels, discussing political news, and showing off photos of his family and friends.
He is survived by his two daughters, three granddaughters, Stephanie McWilliams Shiers, Rachel Reznick, and Heather McWilliams, and two great-grandchildren, Matson Shiers and Kyah Munger. He passed away at the Webb House in McMinnville.
Funeral services will be held graveside at Mizpah Cemetery in Chattanooga at
10 a.m. on
Friday, July 28, at Collins Street and 3rd Street.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in his memory to the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center, mailed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Suite 2416, Los Angeles, CA 90048 or online at http://giving.cedars-sinai.edu or to St. Jude's Children's Hospital.