John Brazzale
Discourse-Issue-22

EDITOR’S NOTE: This tribute to Charlie Sotich captures the importance of the community of kiting. Drachen was honored to work with Marla and Ron Miller to help preserve Charlie’s legacy for generations to come. Examples of his work can be seen at www.drachen.org.

Donate to the “Thank You Charlie” Program at www.gofundme.com/ThankYouCharlie. More information about the program should be directed to Marla Miller at kytpepl2@aol.com.

Upload your photos of Charlie’s kites to our website at www.drachen.org.

Permission to use this written tribute was given by Marla Miller.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

AMERICAN KITEFLIERS ASSOCIATION CONVENTION ENID, OKLAHOMA

For those that do not know me, I am the nephew of Charlie Sotich, or as we knew him, “Uncle Charlie.” I am sorry I can’t be with you today. If I were, this is what I would say about Uncle Charlie.

Like so many of his generation, Uncle Charlie came from a very modest, working-class family. His parents were both immigrants from Yugoslavia, which had a strong influence on him and his four siblings. Among them his brother Peter and his sister Pat, who many of you might have known.

As a child, I recall going to my grandparents’ house, where Uncle Charlie was born and lived most of his life. When I walked in, there were trophies high and low, seemingly in every room you walked into. I thought, “Wow, he must be pretty good at this model airplane thing.” Then I would ask, “Where is Uncle Charlie?” The answer was always, “Working in the basement on a plane.” It seemed that same passion and success followed all his interests throughout his life.

Of the many amazing things about Uncle Charlie was his lifelong thirst for knowledge. He had this natural curiosity to understand the science of why things happened. His education included Bachelors and Masters Degrees in engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. After some time in the U.S. Navy, he was accepted into the management development program at Western Electric, the company that made telephones and other communications equipment. During his time there, he took advantage of every opportunity available to take classes. There were programs at Purdue University and the University of Chicago. Not only was he intrigued by things most people were not, he could see the connection between seemingly unrelated topics. Whether it was fluids, the atmosphere, math, the weather, technology, flight, or other scientific topics, Uncle Charlie saw how they could contribute to his two most important passions: model airplanes and kites. The man knew his way around a slide rule and math!

Besides taking him around the world, meeting amazing people, and having fantastic experiences, contests were how Charlie tested his theories and ideas. Win or lose, he took what he learned from each experience to raise the bar and get a different result. Oftentimes this meant challenging popular theory and testing boundaries, whether it be the science of something or new techniques and materials, on just about anything. If he needed a tool that didn’t exist, he built it. If a material wasn’t available in the right size, he made that too. Most importantly, he chose to share his most important asset, himself and his knowledge, with, well, anyone who asked. This ranged from classes he taught in the Chicago public libraries, in senior living centers, and to so many venues and locations around the world where many of you saw him in action.

I spent a fair amount of time with Uncle Charlie in the last several years. When he was no longer able to come to the American Kitefliers Association convention, I would show him your pictures of kite events on Facebook. Seeing the pictures brought a smile to his face. He would point out the people he knew and talk about the kites they flew. To those who posted the pictures, thank you. You had no idea how much posting those pictures could mean to someone.

Growing up, Uncle Charlie was the quiet one among his siblings and always curious about all things technical. He was the ultimate puzzle solver. Since Charlie’s passing, our family has come to know him through the lens of the worlds he lived in but we never knew: model airplanes and kites.

When looking at Uncle Charlie’s life, I see a man who lived authentically, following his heart in what he did, without a thought to what anyone else thought about it. Like many scientists and artists, the irony of Uncle Charlie is that he never cared about success and the spotlight, but still became world-renowned and is in two museums in the worlds of model airplanes and kites. It wasn’t what he achieved but how he did it that holds the lesson for all of us.

I am sure many of you would not be surprised to know Uncle Charlie had a charitable side, one that was unseen to most, including his family. It is this side that led him to leave gifts through his estate to the American Kitefliers Association (AKA), World Kite Museum, and Drachen Foundation. Additionally, the family has chosen to donate most of his kites and materials to the AKA. These items will either make their way to the museum or be made available through raffles and other means, with all resulting proceeds earmarked to fund the “Thank You Charlie” Program, to ensure children will continue to have the opportunity to be exposed to the world of kite flying.

The Greek culture used to say the best measure of a person’s life is the answer to one question: “Did they live with passion?” There is no doubt Uncle Charlie lived with passion: passion for learning, passion to challenge himself, developing new ways to see things and the equipment and skills necessary to do them, passion for family, and passion for people he met worldwide. Whether it is passion or the number of lives touched, Uncle Charlie is a winner!

For each of you that knew Charlie, I am sure there is a word or two that comes to mind to describe him. I’ll bet some of you might be smiling, remembering him right now. I am. Yours are among the lives he touched, you were his third family, one that knew him in ways we did not. On behalf of our family, I thank you for that and thank Uncle Charlie for sharing himself, giving to others, and most importantly, being him.

Regards,

John Brazzale ◆