Written by Dr. Peter Smith
On November 28, 2008, the SID community lost a much loved and respected colleague. Charles Arnold Pearson was born on January 10, 1952 in White Plains, New York. Chuck attended Stephanic High School in New York, graduated from King's College in Pennsylvania, and received his Masters degree from Merrill-Palmer Institute in Michigan. In 1976, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona, with his loving wife Debbie and built an executive recruiting business he called Murgence. Murgence operated for over 30 years with Chuck's leadership and helped a great many people further their careers, as well as helped build the leadership teams of many well-known display companies. However, Chuck's contributions to SID and the industry went way beyond his business activities.
Chuck freely and enthusiastically gave of his time and energy to make SID a better organization for its members. Chuck's contributions to SID included revitalization of the Southwest SID Chapter in the late 1990s, increasing membership in the Southwest Chapter and the Society as a whole, and navigating a complex legal situation related the SID's corporate status. For the latter accomplishment, Chuck was recognized in 2006 with an SID Presidential Citation. Chuck's energy and enthusiasm was contagious and resulted in getting many others on board to serve the Society also.
Chuck held several official titles in SID including Membership Chair, Audit Committee Chair, and Director of the Southwest SID Chapter, which he held from 2003 to his passing.
Chuck's stated profession was recruiting, or as Chuck would say, "Helping the members of SID achieve their career goals." Chuck built the premier boutique recruiting firm serving the Information Display industry. Chuck recruited for firms in North America, Asia, and Europe. Chuck's impact permitted members to advance their careers and hiring companies to find the best talent to achieve the unique challenges of the display industry. In this process, other companies would lose talent. Chuck would reply with humor that, "You are either a client or a source of talent." Chuck's clients were always pleased, the newly promoted human capital was happy, and the sending firm's human resource function often a bit puzzled.While Chuck spent considerable time building his business and serving SID, he was, at heart, a family man. Chuck was most proud when his conversations turned to family and, in particular, his children. In the last few years, Chuck took up Irish Dancing with his wife, Debbie, moved to California to be closer to his children, and maintained his Arizona-based recruiting business through daily phone calls to his long time partner, Lawrence Liakos. He is survived by his wife, Debbie; children, Chuck, Michael, Robert, and Catherine; daughters-in-law Katie and Christine; granddaughter, Hannah Marie, and expected granddaughter, Maddyn Grace; brothers, Bill, Tom, John, and Chris; and his father, Andy.
A formal notice of Chuck's passing is also available on the SID website: www.sid.org. •