
Charles “Chuck” Work, a long time and accomplished lawyer, still participates in American politics. His success reflected in his refined demeanor and wristwatch.
Xavier Palmares - Text & Media
August 3, 2025
After my parents divorced while I was in the second grade, they naturally remarried and I quickly had a new range of people in my life. First and in the case of my mother, I was introduced to my step family like my stepdad; siblings; uncles and aunts; but more specifically, my grandfather, Charles "Chuck" Work.
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After a cursory-level glance, "Chuck," "Grandpa Chuck," or "GPC" (which he famously enjoys being called) is a retired 85 year old white man who enjoys golf and swimming under the sun. And after a closer look, he possesses a surprising mental acuity for his age; perhaps a result of his great physical fitness and/or notably, his many years spent as a lawyer and in the field of journalism.
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"Nepotism never hurt the nepo-baby" -Step Grandma Ron Ron
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GPC began his story with his first job at the age of 14 "as an office boy at the legal newspaper in Los Angeles, called the Los Angeles Daily Journal," which admittedly by his wife and my step grandma (who was present at the table during the interview), was a result of nepotism because his cousin held a position within said publication. As you may put together while reading, GPC came from an upper middle class family to which he attributes his success. Regardless, he recounts the first task set by Mr. Telford to get his social security card. Unbeknownst to him, the clerk mistyped "Work" as "W$rk," which they considered a good omen of his future success, which in the long run, would prove true. "My Social Security card still says W, the $1 sign, with O typed lightly over it then R, and K"
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As time went on, GPC secured a job as an obituary writer for the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah. From there, he continued to work his way up the ladder as they offered him a six week journalism course at the well regarded Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern. As years passed pursuing journalism, he thought "Well, I have to have a graduate degree. I could go get a master's in journalism, but I thought even if I wanted to be a journalist, having a law degree was probably a better qualification. And I [knew I] always wanted to be a lawyer. My grandfather was a lawyer. Grandfather worked with a lawyer, and so I decided to go to law school." From there, he "decided, well, let's do this for a while. I can always write, do journalism, and [then] I never left law."
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