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Alumni Spotlight: Charles O. (Chuck) Taylor, Class of 1974

The lawyer and navy veteran credits the close family of Wesleyan with helping him survive after serving in Vietnam

Universtiy News | March 20, 2024

Charles O. (Chuck) Taylor graduated from Virginia Wesleyan in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, minoring in political science. He continued his education at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts, earning his law degree in 1977. After retiring as a partner for Chehardy, Sherman, Ellis, Breslin, Murray, Recile & Griffith, L.L.P. in 2020, he is currently consulting in trial law and medical malpractice.

Prior to enrolling at Virginia Wesleyan, Taylor was a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy. He shared how his years at the college positively impacted his success.

“Most importantly, like many graduates in my class, I was fresh out of the service. So many of my scholarly skills had atrophied, and the kind and patient professors took me in hand and showed me what I could do!”

Taylor says his best memories of his undergraduate years were during sessions between the regular semesters.

“At that time, the university had a between semester set of programs. I loved the two I took. They were stimulating and helpful in weird areas of endeavor.”

He easily recalled that his favorite professors were Dan Graf, Stephen Mansfield, and Mary Lou and Larry Hultgren.

“When I retired (medically) from the Navy, I was somewhat adrift. I was fortunate, more than our armed forces today, in that I had a very generous benefit VA package that paid 100% of school costs, plus it gave me a generous income per month. However, I was older than many of my student colleagues and closer to the age of my professors. So, it was the close family of Wesleyan, students and faculty that actually helped me survive those harrowing years after the war (Vietnam), helped me grow and mentally spread my wings. In every sense of the word, they saved me from the fate so often faced by returning vets. So, Wesleyan is where I found myself and, in a real sense, it helped me out of my funk and dispelled the haunting that enveloped after my service. In short, the smallish size of the school and its warm environs and caring people, in a very real way, saved me from what so often happened to many of my service friends.”

Taylor now lives in Metairie, Louisiana. He and his wife have two grown children, Matt and Katie, and three grandsons.

The Class of 1974 will celebrate the 50th reunion of their graduation from Virginia Wesleyan during Spring Alumni Weekend on April 5 and 6.