From: Laurie Ackerman
Good morning Charlie, aka our beloved best baseball coach,
We do go along way back to the days of KHJ, my cousin Jack Carney and my cousins Karen and Ari Stern,
You are always a breath of fresh air on the radio. You always bring something new each day to the airwaves. I hope you will consider coming out of semi-retirement and permanently find a home back in morning radio. You simply are the best there is in the business.
However, I would like to share something much richer about you that some people may not know about you as a man,husband, father and coach.
You helped shape the lives of the future of young men when they were blessed to have you as their baseball coach.
I am speaking to you of course about my cousin Ari Stern. He must have been about 10 or 11 years old when he joined your Little League team. Formerly, Ari was told one day by his coach then, that he wouldn’t play him because if he did, the team would lose. I am not sure if you knew this story or not?
Our family was so disheartened that a Little League coach would take such a Vince Lombardi approach . Ari was a very enthusiastic boy who loved the game of baseball . His dreams would have been crushed for the love of baseball if it hadn’t been for his new coach, Charlie!
My cousin Karen made a brillant move by switching Ari next season to your league. Fortunately, Ari was placed on your team. It was one of the most fun years in Little League for Ari Stern and all of his teammates.
You instilled all of the wonderful values for life. You taught the team to have fun. They always demonstrated great sportmanship, tried their best and their skills improved steadily throughout the year. Most of all Ari loved the game of baseball once again. You helped his sense of confidence and built his self – esteem which in my opinion has carried Ari throughout his life. That is really winning when a coach can do that for his team players.
Over the past few years as I have been able to become re-aquainted with you through K-Earth, I so appreciate your sharing the success of your son Bryan and knowing what a wonderful person you raised on and off the baseball field.
You have accomplished your own field of dreams as both a radio personality, husband, father, and coach.
Charlie, you are voted our MVP for life both on and off the radio waves and Little league field. Of course you know that you could count on me when it came to making sure you were voted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. . My first cousin Jack Carney, who was voted into the Broadcast Hall of Fame postumously in 2001 would be proud to call you his colleague.
I hope you will put into the search engine Ari Stern. You will find him as a postdoctorate in UCSD. He completed his doctorate at Caltech. I know when you see his work , you will feel very proud that the values you emphazied as his coach during his years in Little League paid off for him in life . Ari is happily married to Erica.. My cousin Karen went back to school and is a full time teacher in mathematics at Harvard -Westlake.
As for myself, I am enjoying raising Carly. She is 14 years old. She is a student at The Buckley School. I was blessed at 44 to adopt my blessing from above. Though the teen years are a bit of challenge, I am doing my best . We have a great relationship. It takes lots of work . It is worth every minute of it too. I try to instill good values for Carly too.
Community service is one that our family has always held of great importance. Carly works for Sova which is a food bank. Carly has earned 63 hours working there. My cousin Karen was in charge of Sova when Ari was a student at Stephen S. Wise . Carly is following in the foot steps of cousin Karen by actually working at the Sova food bank.We are keeping the good values in the family tree.
May 2010 bring you great happiness, health and most of all family values that you have always cherished that are near and dear to your heart.
Laurie Ackerman
