Charles (Chuck) Taylor is a native of Montclair, New Jersey where he attended Montclair High School. After an outstanding high school career in track and field and being named the 1972 Athlete of the Year in the state of New Jersey, he was recruited to attend KSU by Hall-of-Famer and world renown Coach Dr. Kenneth Gibson.

Charles was one of KSU’s top overall athletes during his tenure on the track team. He was the best hurdler in school history, as he ran sub 14 seconds on many occasions. He was always competitive and ran against former world record holders, Olympians and national champions in the likes of Ron Melborn, Charlie Foster, Renardo Nehemiah, Willie Gault and Gregory Foster. He represented KSU well and is still considered the best short hurdler of all time for KSU.

Charles competed all four years in both Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field seasons. He earned four athletic letters and was team captain in his junior and senior years. He earned KSU “Hurdler of the Year” in his freshman and sophomore year.

During his final two years, he earned four NCAA Division II All-American honors. In 1975 he earned three All-American awards in the 120 Yard High Hurdles, the 440 Yard Intermediate Hurdles, and was a member of the One Mile Relay. He is still the only athlete in school history to earn All-American during the same year in both hurdle races. In 1976 he earned All-American honors in the 400 Meter Intermediate Hurdles.

The track team participated in the Central Collegiate Conference (CCC). Charles did earn several indoor and outdoor All-CCC honors in both hurdle races and as a member of the One Mile Relay team.

In 1976, Charles was a member of KSU Shuttle Hurdle team which was ranked as one of the best. He anchored both the indoor and outdoor Shuttle Hurdle Relay teams. The indoor team ended the year as #2 and the outdoor team finished #4 ranked in the United States. This accomplishment has never been matched by any other team at KSU.

Charles continued to compete for a few years after graduating from KSU in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). He began his engineering career at General Electric in Chicago, Illinois as a manufacturer engineer. One of his greatest accomplishments was in 2010 when he was working for Aerojet Rocketdyne and was promoted to the Senior Specialist Quality Engineer where he was team leader on NASA’s Rover program. He received numerous awards for manufacturing excellence and for delivering the first nuclear powered battery to NASA for the “Curiosity Rover”. Because of Charles and his team, the Curiosity Rover is still functional, and continues to send images and data to NASA from the planet Mars.

Charles retired in 2019 and resides in Rancho Mirage, California with his wife, Valerie. They have a daughter, Cheyenne, who is soon to graduate from medical school.