Charlie Boyle – Illinois Aviation Hall Of Fame

Charlie Boyle, 96 years young, is a longtime friend of Chicago Executive Airport. To recognize this humble aviation buff, we’d like to shine the spotlight on Charlie who has given so much to our airport.
But there is a lot about Charlie’s life story that goes well beyond aviation.

As a child in the foster care system, he had his first airplane ride from a kind pilot who he regularly watched him fly in and out of the local airport. Riding high in that Piper J3 Cub, he caught the ‘flying bug.’ With big dreams and a new passion for airplanes, Charlie enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 16, slipping past the minimum age of 17. While stationed in Washington, D.C. and playing trumpet in the military band, he enjoyed learning photography with his Argus C3 camera which he recalls cost him $30, a great sum of money at the time. One remarkable day, he happened to capture shots of a small plane collision which caught the attention of superiors. “The sergeant told me they were really great pictures,” Charlie recalls. “He said I was wasted in the band and offered to send me to Air Force photography school at Lowry Field in Colorado. I jumped at the chance.”
He went on to learn both aerial photography and how to fly an airplane.

Once discharged from service, Charlie found a job in a Pittsburgh area steel mill and later a coal mine. Not much photography needed in those positions, so he continued to practice his skills after hours, taught himself to use a movie camera, and occasionally supplied film to local television stations.
One day he happened upon a man who was threatening to jump off a bridge and Charlie kindly approached him to try to talk him down. It instantly became a news story and as part of the coverage, he was interviewed by a KDKA-TV news reporter who learned of his camera skills.

Back at the station, the reporter encouraged his manager to take a chance on hiring Charlie who ended up working there as a cameraman for ten years. Because he could fly, he was often dispatched to hard-to-reach story locations, like a coal mine disaster. While covering a five-alarm fire in Pittsburgh for KDKA, his camera moved across an unknown woman in the crowd. “She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life,” Charlie reflects. He introduced himself and included images of her in his story. That woman, Linda, became his wife.

After receiving a promotion to WMAQ-TV, he and his family moved to Chicago. He later became a cameraman for the NBC network where he covered major news events such as the Chicago riots after the death of Martin Luther King, Kennedy’s assassination, and the ensuing hunt for Lee Harvey Oswald. His stories are endless. Along the way, he was recognized with five Emmy Awards and two TV Hall of Fame Awards.

Meanwhile, Charlie always loved flying when he could and made CEA his second home. In 1986 he became volunteer Commander of the airport’s Civic Air Patrol (CAP), a role he held for 19 years. He started with ten community volunteers, which he eventually grew to 100. Over the course of this role, he mentored hundreds of young people and collaborated with CEA management to increase resources for the program.
“The CAP is basically the volunteer search and rescue team for any plane that goes down in our area, plus it provides aviation experience and leadership training to young people,” he explains. “Because we aren’t funded by Air Force or the state, there were moments when I pushed for things that we needed.”

In 2016, Charlie was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame.

He has nothing but good words to say about his CEA experience. “Every courtesy and consideration was offered to me and the CAP squadron,” he says. “At each step along the way, as we gave of ourselves, the airport management gave of themselves to assist us. And let me say that CEA is just a great place to hang out.”