Charles Marvin Merrow

Born in Decatur, Illinois on September 30, 1940, Charlie’s earliest days were spent moving with his Army officer father, Elmer “Jack” Merrow, and mother, Florence Ewing Merrow, all around the globe. Seven years later, while living in Puerto Rico, he was joined by his younger sister, Joy Merrow Binnell. He made many of his best childhood memories in such disparate locales as British Guyana and Okinawa, Japan. Prior to high school, Charlie never spent more than two years in one school. Fortunately, his mother agreed to stay in Tacoma, Washington so that he could attend and graduate from Clover Park High School in 1958. In high school he played varsity tennis, was president of the chess club, and led the school’s quiz bowl team,

After that, he made the life-changing decision to attend Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington on an academic scholarship. There he also played varsity golf, was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and traveled with the varsity Baseball, Football and Basketball teams as their statistician. This was where he met the love of his life, Minda Lee McLaughlin. They began dating in their sophomore year and were “pinned” in their senior year, including the requisite serenading between the Beta's and the Theta's.

While still an undergraduate, his lifelong love of computers began with a summer stint at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, one of the birthplaces of the modern computer. After serving as Senior Class President and graduating Magna Cum Laude from Whitman in 1962, Charlie earned his first master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Washington and Minda taught first grade in Bellevue. Although only able to cross Puget Sound to see one another once a week, they planned their June 22nd, 1963 wedding.

Immediately after the wedding, they moved to Pasadena, California where Charlie took a job at the Naval Ordinance Test Station (NOTS). Simultaneously, he was pursuing a PhD in Mathematics at CalTech, but after realizing that his true love was applied math, he finished his second master’s degree and worked full time at NOTS. While they were in Pasadena, daughter Sharon arrived in 1965 followed by son Michael in 1968. Shortly after Michael’s birth, Charlie was transferred to the San Diego Naval Undersea Center in Point Loma where he remained throughout his career. As a civil servant, he worked for the Navy for 38 years. His responsibilities included defense systems analysis and, while working in Pearl Harbor, he introduced the admirals of the Pacific Fleet to the value of computers, which actually resulted in computerizing the Navy.

His love of computers led him to co-create the first computer baseball strategy game in the early 80’s, followed by several popular military computer games. Aside from designing computer games, Charlie was a devoted chess player. For much of his adult life, he had dozens of games going – most through the mail. While he always loved the statistics and strategies of sports, he was also an avid fan, especially of the Padres and of professional golf. As a father, he was a patient and skilled Little League coach and a competitive family board-game player.

Moving to San Diego introduced him to a new family at Palisades Presbyterian Church. Since joining in 1968, Charlie served as the perennial Chair of the Finance Commission, as an elder, as Chair of the Pastor-Seeking Committee, on multiple Presbytery committees, and even as a delegate to the Presbyterian General Assembly. He loved Palisades so much.

He also adored the family that he and Minda created, which kept growing when Sharon married Vince Cuseo and Michael married Amy Perry. These unions produced four beloved grandchildren, Matthew, Marlow, Jenna, and Andrew. Minda was everything to Charlie and theirs was an inspirational love story. They enjoyed one another’s company every day for the past 63 years, and when Charlie was able to retire from the government at age 57, their international travel (mostly by cruise ship) began. His life was one of great joy, curiosity, purpose, and profound faith.