I took a week-long master class from Charles at the University of Texas in the early 1980's. I found my niche for design from his class (draping, bias), and like WendyW, I was the quirky one, and we had fun.

At the time, I had a dressmaking shop with employees, and he and I shared stories about production problems.

One of his most colorful was how they cleaned garments in the shop: filled a sink with dry-cleaning fluid, immersed the garment, and then ran with it outside onto the street and flapped it dry. Talk about lack of regulations and safety!

He also told me about the ladies that came in for their final fitting, and would say, oh-so-charmingly, "Oh Charles, I think it should be a teensy bit longer, don't you? Maybe a quarter of an inch?" He would charmingly agree, and she would leave.
Then he would hang the dress up on the rack, and wait for her return appointment. (didn't do a thing to the hem). When she came, she would rave, and say, "Oh, that quarter inch just makes it divine, don't you agree?"

He was also very supportive, and wrote me a letter of commendation to frame on my shop wall. I would say he had a fabulous sense of humor, a wicked one at times, and was an utter gentleman.

His gifts of his talent and methods and skills were given over and over. Just look at these posts: classes and teaching in many, many venues over the years, always associated with places of learning. Not many successful designers do that. And what gifts--the attention to detail, always for a reason of the beauty of the product--I can't add to the already wonderful expressions of appreciation above.

He is a National Treasure, and it is our loss that he is gone.

Thank you, Charles, for so much.

Anna