Background
Gusewelle was born on July 22, 1933 in Kansas City, Kansas, United States; the son of Hugh L. Gusewelle and Dorothy (Middleton) Gusewelle.
2012
Charles Gusewelle, on the right, with Giles Merrill Fowler.
4747 Flora Ave, Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Gusewelle studied at Paseo High School.
Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Gusewelle received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Westminster College in 1955.
Charles Gusewelle with his dog
Gusewelle was born on July 22, 1933 in Kansas City, Kansas, United States; the son of Hugh L. Gusewelle and Dorothy (Middleton) Gusewelle.
Gusewelle studied at Paseo High School. In 1955, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Westminster College. Also in 1990, Charles was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Park College.
Gusewelle began his career as a general assignment reporter of the Kansas City Star in 1955 and held it for eleven years. He served as a paratrooper for the Army`s 82nd Airborne Division from 1956 to 1958, where he attained the rank of first lieutenant. In 1966, Charles became an editorial writer on foreign affairs of the Kansas City Star. Then in 1976, he was appointed a foreign editor of the same newspaper. Since 1979 Charles served as a columnist of the Kansas City Star.
In addition, in the mid-1980s, Gusewelle wrote from France for a year, three times a week and from Dakar, Senegal, throughout a summer. He was the American leader of a 1991 joint United States-Russian expedition of the entire 2,734-mile length of the Lena River in Siberia. Charles wrote, produced and narrated a 90-minute documentary of that journey for KCPT, called "A Great Current Running". Other TV features he would make included a documentary about Kansas City called "This Place Called Home." "Water & Fire: A Story of the Ozarks" premiered in 2000.
His longer pieces were published in Harper's, American Heritage and The Paris Review, among other magazines and journals. In 1978 his story,"Horst Wessel," was published in the Pushcart Prize III anthology of American writing and in 1985 his essay, "The Winds of Ruin," appeared in the anthology A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage. Among the most popular of his 12 books was a collection of Gusewelle columns called "The Rufus Chronicle: Another Autumn," featuring his beloved bird dog. Readers of his column also were endeared by stories about his many cats, as well as squirrels, birds, foxes and other creatures that amused him both at home in Kansas City and at his Ozarks cabin.
(It's almost a universal desire-the yearning for someplace...)
2008Gusewelle's boundless wit, kindness and worldly wisdom captivated generations of readers. He adored Paris, every detail of nature and typewriters (he owned 27) over computers. He also loved hunting and angling, morel mushrooms, Lamar's doughnuts, the green beans at Smith's restaurant in Collins, Missouri.
On April 17, 1966, Charles Gusewelle married Katie Jane Ingels. The marriage produced two children.