Lifelong entrepreneurs Joe and Barbara Charles have long been dedicated to dreaming big and giving generously. In fact, this dual philosophy is so ingrained in their outlook on life that it guided them in making one of the most significant donations in their careers.
After founding the company business in their family basement in 1968, and putting 50 years of sweat equity into growing the company and creating thousands of jobs, they sold their Illinois-based telecommunications manufacturing company, Charles Industries, to Amphenol Corporation in April of 2019.
Upon reflecting on all that they had achieved in life and business, and all that they were blessed with, they celebrated their tradition of giving with a single big-ticket item focused on community health and welfare: a $2 million PET/CT machine, which they donated to Jupiter Medical Center.
The GE Healthcare digital PET/CT (positron emission tomography/computed tomography) advances the medical center’s patient care and prevention as it is the first state-of-the-art nuclear imaging device in the greater Treasure Coast region. Named Discovery IQ, the diagnostic tool provides a superior resolution that enables oncologists, cardiologists, and other physicians to detect disease faster and with increased accuracy. It is ideal for scanning patients with metal implants because it all but eliminates visual interferences caused by such artifacts.
Joe explains his success in business, among other things, has always been to have the latest, most advanced capital equipment and technology one could afford. The donation to Jupiter Medical Center’s Anderson Family Cancer Institute reflects his longstanding philosophy. The gift is also very personal, as the couple lost not only Joe’s parents, but also several very dear friends to cancer. “Perhaps a bit self-serving, but should Barb or I get cancer, I want to ensure our doctors are using the latest technology, available locally, to treat us,” says Joe.
High school sweethearts, they would both go on to Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri, marry in 1960, and honeymoon in Florida. What was their initial attraction? “We’ve laughed about this for years,” reflects Joe. “She always says, ‘I saw potential.’” While Joe admits he was first drawn to Barb’s 1956 coral-and-white Ford convertible.
Joe began his career selling custom-molded plastic and rubber products and recalls selling rubber to Sam Davison, who started Dacor Dive Equipment. But Joe had an entrepreneurial spirit and was inspired to strike out on his own. He turned his attention to developing and patenting a modular load coil, a device capable of reducing online noise and improving voice quality in a telephone company’s embedded copper plant.
In 1968, Joe launched his own telecommunications equipment manufacturing company in the family basement in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Fourteen patents and millions of dollars in worldwide sales later, Barb was proven right: Joe indeed had potential. Barb was also involved with the company, serving as head of human resources. However, she jokingly sums up her life mission: “I have one job, and that’s to make him look good, period.”
Outside of their primary business, the pair raised two children and also took up boating on Lake Michigan in 1980 after Joe competed in the Chicago Mackinac sailboat race. Owning several power boats over the years on Lake Michigan, their largest an 80-foot Burger, they navigated all five of the Great Lakes as well as cruised up and down the East Coast and Mississippi River from Chicago to Mobile, Alabama. “We’re boat nuts,” Joe says. “You meet a lot of interesting people while boating— and Barb has never met a stranger.”
Their passion for boating contributed greatly to their returning to Florida and later becoming full-time residents. Boating also led to founding Charles Marine Products in 1980, which manufactures battery chargers, power cords and adapters, and isolation transformers. Today, their Neptunus Express yacht carries the same name as all their prior Florida boats, C–Charger®, after the first Marine U.L. battery charger the company developed.
Joe’s inability to find a quality boatyard to store their boat during Florida’s hurricane season led to his next business. In 2004, he launched River Forest Yachting Center (RFYC), the state’s first climate-controlled boat storage facility, built to withstand hurricane force winds. After the success of the Stuart location, a second, larger facility was built in LaBelle in 2007.
A lift operator at RFYC’s Stuart facility was the impetus for Joe’s involvement with the Okeechobee Marshals and SASS (Single Action Shooting Society). The international organization was created to preserve and promote the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting. Two years after he joined the Marshals, the local club was unable to maintain a permanent location and in need of a new home to hold their matches.
Citing “problems are only opportunities looking for a solution,” in 2010 Joe and Barb bought 40 acres in Okeechobee and built the OK Corral Gun Club, an Old West–inspired shooting and recreational facility, dedicated to offering the Florida sportsman the ultimate shooting venues. Ten years later, the gun club and event destination now covers 350 acres and includes a SASS venue, numerous ranges, trap and skeet, two sporting clay fields, a tactical park, mercantile pro shop, event ballroom and restaurant, and overnight cabins.
Whether relaxing on their yacht or enjoying one of their treasured pastimes, Joe and Barb truly find comfort and happiness in their companionship with one another. Having just celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary, the duo shares a dry sense of humor, a mutual gift of gab, and the recognition that their hard work over the years has enabled them to enjoy their passions. And as demonstrated by this generous donation to Jupiter Medical Center, both are passionate about giving back and supporting the communities in which they reside.