Charles W. Hurd JR Memorial Scholarship

Charles W. Hurd JR Scholarship

Welcome to our Chuck-a-thon website! We wanted to take a moment to tell you about the man that we do this for, Charles William Hurd, Jr.

Chuck-a-thon was created in memory of Charles “Chuck” W. Hurd, Jr., who left this earth much too soon. Son of Charles and Gloria Hurd, he was born February 9, 1962. Chuck unfortunately passed at the age of 58 on August 31, 2020. Chuck was raised in Taberg, New York, the eldest of his siblings, Tim, Nancy, Jeanine, Matt, Ken, and Andy. Chuck met his wife, Elizabeth, while attending Utica College together and they were married on December 19, 1983. Chuck and Elizabeth had three children together, Chuck, Erin and Kelly. Chuck and Elizabeth purchased a beautiful farmhouse property on Waldron Road in Camden, New York, the site of many family gatherings over the years. At the time of his passing, Chuck was the Grandpa Appa of eight grandchildren, Brooke, Payton, Connor, Charles William Hurd, IV (“Chase”), Henry, Samuel, Noah, and Oliver. His two youngest grandchildren, Adam Charles and Harper, were born after he passed. Chuck had many family relations and friends that miss him deeply.

Chuck had long loved the world of board games. In his childhood, Chuck often played Risk and Easy Money with his siblings. Chuck was a master of chess and was the Founder and President of Chess Club at the Camden High School. He enjoyed playing Clue with his wife and children. He also played games such as Stock Market, Scrabble, and Advance to Boardwalk, with Elizabeth and his father-in-law Charles, and sister and brother-in-law Margaret and Thom. Chuck’s brother-in-law Chris is credited for introducing Chuck to Carcassonne. Chuck loved it so much he acquired all of the expansions and the Collector’s Big Box to store it all. He earned the title CarKing as a result of his love for Carcassonne (a story we’ll share another time).

Chuck’s younger brother, Andy, introduced the family to “Settlers of Catan” which opened the door into strategy games. Family game nights became a regular occurrence and Chuck’s brother Ken even created specialized Catan playing pieces with different colors so more of the family could play together—we definitely bent the eight-player limit and had some epic games of Catan.

Chuck furthered his passion for board games by attending Gen Con with Elizabeth, every year since 2011. He thoroughly enjoyed trying out new games and meeting new people. At Gen Con, Chuck was the GM for his longtime favorite board game, “A Touch of Evil.” He would come back so excited to tell the family about new gems he had discovered while at Gen Con, often purchasing the perfect game for each family member for Christmas. Chuck regularly played “Adventures in Fantasy,” a role-playing game designed and created by his brother Matt, worked on campaigns of Zombicide with his son Chuck, and even play-tested a Kick Starter game, Aeon’s End, having to play 14 times in only five days to meet the deadlines in order to get his name printed in the gamebook! Chuck was a member of the CNY Tabletop Game Society, meeting monthly to play board games. He also traveled to Westchester to participate in the Westchester Gaming Group events.

Playing games with Chuck was interesting because it would be typical that he was the only one who read through the rule book in its entirety and had play-tested the game by himself a few times before teaching it to the family. In teaching his family to play games, his memory would be selective and sometimes half-way through a game he would remember an applicable rule, a running joke in the family. It made him near impossible to defeat at most games. Luckily, Chuck also enjoyed a lot of different co-op style games. Chuck was a master of strategy, loved the chase of success, and sometimes had a hard time refraining from giving his opinions as to strategy. But, for Chuck, it was never about winning, he just really loved playing games and using his mind to analyze the game and even better, spend time with family and friends. Every game, no matter who won or lost, was completed with high fives all the way around the table and an “alriggghht” with a big smile.

We created Chuck-a-thon to keep that love for board games and the spirit of camaraderie alive in Chuck’s memory. We hope that you will enjoy Chuck-a-thon as much as we do. As Chuck always said before a game, “Let’s play it out!”