Charles Fuellgraf

The lasting legacy of Charles Fuellgraf will be that of a man who would always give others the shirt off his back.

“In order, it would be God, family and community. He was very much a person who believed in giving back to the community,” said his son, Chud Fuellgraf.

Fuellgraf, who died Saturday at age 89, expanded the family electrical business, loved his family and served his country.

“Everything was for his family or just simply helping other people,” Chud Fuellgraf said. “There were several families who he would take care of, unbeknownst to everybody, and pay their rent or mortgage for a year. People he would see on the street and hear a problem or an issue and go to them.”

After Fuellgraf graduated from Butler High School in 1949, he enrolled in the Carnegie Institute of Technology, from which he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1953.

In 1952, he enlisted with the Marine Corps, serving from 1952 to 1955 as an infantry officer.

While he's best known professionally as the longtime president and CEO of Fuellgraf Electric Company, based in Butler County with a sister location in Nashville, his career could have turned out differently — if he had known he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“In those days, you didn't get a phone call; you'd get a letter. He was drafted after he got out of the service,” Chud Fuellgraf said. “He received a letter from the Steelers, but my grandfather thought it was time for him to get to work, so he took it. … A couple years later, he was with one of the coaches, who said, 'How come you never responded?'”

Fuellgraf replied, “What are you talking about?”

Even without a storied football career — he played center and defensive tackle in college and was an All-Marine center for two years — Fuellgraf built a solid, lengthy career with the eponymous electrical construction and engineering firm.

Nephew Ken Bronder, who started his own company in 1974, said he saw Fuellgraf's hard work, and it paid dividends.

“Chuck was able to expand the company and grow it and get it a lot larger, into more, bigger projects,” Bronder said.

Fuellgraf often worked, even when he was busy expanding his company, to advance other enterprises within the community.

“He was very active in developing the business and in developing the electrical industry in Western Pennsylvania, and then he became involved in Nationwide Insurance, and he was the longest tenured board member of Nationwide Insurance, 40 years,” Chud Fuellgraf said.

He was the chairman and a lifelong member of the Salvation Army, chairman of the Butler Memorial Hospital board, a board member of the Boy Scouts of America and a trustee for Carnegie Mellon University — and that's just naming a few items from the lengthy list of his involvement in the region's community organizations.

“You look at what he did, you look in there, all the different boards he was on, all the community service, the different things, it speaks volumes. As you look at that, Semper Fi, always faithful, he was faithful to every one of those organizations that he was in,” said his friend, Bob Cordroy, who was part of an investment club of which Fuellgraf was a member. “And if you look, even in the bottom line of his obituary, instead of flowers they want donations to the Salvation Army or the Shriners Hospitals (for Children). It doesn't get any better than that.”

Fuellgraf was recognized numerous times for his involvement in the community — he was awarded the Paul Harris Fellow from Rotary International, and was named a life member of the Salvation Army, for example — but that wasn't the goal.

He was a “very generous and sincere person. If somebody needed help, he would help them out. And he was never doing it just to get the credit,” Bronder said. “A lot of the things he would do weren't even told. Nobody knew it.”

Throughout his life, Fuellgraf had many roles. As a Marine, he would make his “kids stand up and honor the flag,” his son said. As a family man, he was “the happiest we had seen him in a long time” when his family got together for a wedding anniversary party.

He'd get into woodworking and build gifts, with different themes, for his grandchildren. He loved to hunt and had a collection of hundreds of knives — his favorites were handmade Damascus knives.

But even to his family, Fuellgraf was a people person, someone who dedicated his life to helping others. When they talk about Fuellgraf, that's what comes to mind.

“Quite honestly, all we came up with was what he did for other people,” Chud Fuellgraf said. “We all kept throwing in things where he'd go to the grocery store and be in line, and see the little old lady with a little cart with her and pay for her things. That type of thing.”