But
Charles believes that the greatest distances he has traveled are not measured
in miles or years, but in the dramatic changes he has witnessed, participated
in, and contributed to. He is proudest
of the contributions he has made to the rehabilitation of amputees and the
severely paralyzed, and to the quality of care received by service men and
women in both military and veterans’ hospitals.
Over the course of his civilian and military medical careers, he
directly contributed to the creation and/or development of a number of
professions, including Rehabilitation Medicine, Kinesiology, Kinesiotherapy
(Applied Kinesiology or Therapeutic Exercise), Recreation Therapy, Sports
Medicine, Prosthetics, Orthotics, Cosmetic Prosthetics, Emergency Medical
Technology (EMTs), Physicians’ Assistant (PA), Biomedical and Rehabilitation
Engineering.
When
Charles began work as a therapist with the Veterans’ Administration, metal
hooks and wooden legs were still standard, and quadriplegics lived relatively
short, rigidly constrained, and pain-ridden lives, confined to beds. In those days, wheelchairs were exactly that,
chairs with wheels, poorly suited to the needs of most handicapped. Charles was privileged to be Research and
Education Officer with the V A Prosthetics and Orthotics Research Center during
the 1970’s where he introduced a group of out-of-work aerospace engineers to
the problems and challenges of the severely handicapped. Their response and subsequent research and
development has given us the concept of the “Bionic Man” (or Woman),
and greatly expanded horizons for the severely physically handicapped. Every time Charles sees one of the new
all-terrain, or sports “wheelchairs,”
he smiles in appreciation of the progress made.
It
was Charles’s idea to hire artists from the NYC art schools to design and
construct facial prostheses for victims of disfiguring accidents or surgery, a
suggestion, which gave birth to a profession.
In the early 70’s he traveled across the US, establishing the first
college level education programs for Prosthetists and Orthotists (mostly 2 year
degrees). Prior to that time, the
fabricating and fitting of artificial limbs and braces was done by workmen trained
in a variety of trades and crafts, but lacking any systematic professional
preparation for working with crippled patients.
Today, B.S. and graduate degrees are granted in these professions.
Some of his best memories are of times
when he defied conventional wisdom, and allowed Veteran patients to do what
others believed impossible. As a therapist at the Shreveport VAMC, he promised
a bilateral amputee (missing both arms and both legs) that the Veteran, a
cowboy, could ride in the Houston Fat Stock Show Parade if he just worked hard
enough. When the VA administrators were
afraid of legal responsibility, Charles gave the Cowboy official leave, and
they went to Houston and rode in the parade.
That cowboy Veteran went on to be a role model for hundreds of amputees,
traveling the US for Veteran organizations, and becoming the subject of a TV
documentary.
In1974, Charles supervised, helped arrange,
and participated in the first amputee skiing expedition at Steamboat Springs. Today, we are accustomed to news stories
reporting the accomplishments and physical achievements of the severely
physically handicapped, but in the 60’s and 70’s, conservative policies and
precedents created major roadblocks, and Charles delighted in removing a few of
these.
New York in the 1970’s was deeply
involved in civil rights for all, and the handicapped were among the groups who
benefitted. As a consultant, Charles
helped provide guidance for legislation for wheelchair bound patients,
amputees, and paralyzed individuals. In
conjunction with this work, Charles conducted seminal research into the
effectiveness and safety of adaptive driving equipment marketed across the
United States, and into state protections and regulations for handicapped
drivers. The New York Academy of Science
published his findings in a 1974 article entitled, “Evaluation of Adaptive Automotive Driving Aids for the Disabled.”
The article still is cited in standards for construction and regulation.
Charles’s most humorous experience in
patient mobility took place at the Castle Point VAMC, in the Center for
Paralyzed Veterans. Engineers were
exploring ways that totally paralyzed veterans could control wheelchairs. They decided to use glasses that sensed eye
movements to control the chair. When the
patient looked up, the chair moved forward; when he looked down, it stopped;
eyes left meant turn left; eyes right meant turn right. The system worked perfectly until a pretty
nurse walked down the hallway, and all the wheelchairs spun around. The engineers decided to use a pneumatic
straw with a blow-suck control.
The first day that men who had been
paralyzed for years received their adaptive controlled wheelchairs was truly an
“Independence Day.” What the hospital didn’t expect was their “declaration;” they immediately took off
down the highway to the local pub, prepared to really celebrate their first day
of freedom.
When Charles entered the US Army Reserve
Medical Corp as a lowly 2nd Lt., corpsmen ‘s primary responsibility
was loading wounded men onto trucks and transports. Most wounded didn’t live to reach the MASH units
made famous by the long-running TV show.
Over Charles’s military career, the entire organization for delivery of
military medical care was revised and revamped.
Emergency Medicine, as a specialty, emerged first in the military
context. Corpsmen became our first
trained EMT’s and eventually our first PA’s.
Their duties expanded, and the numbers of lives saved was exponential. Medical evacuation helicopters with trained
paramedics eventually made the MASH unit obsolete, and provided medical care
that greatly increased survival rates. As a corollary, the numbers of severely
handicapped veterans needing rehabilitation services also increased
dramatically.
In
1976, in recognition of Charles’s outstanding contributions to education and
research in prosthetics and orthotics, the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, asked
that he accept an assignment in the V.A. Medical Center Director training
program. After training at VA Medical
Centers in NYC, Wyoming, Chicago, and Dallas, Charles served as Director of
V.A. Medical Centers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,
Alexandria/Pineville, LA, and Bonham, TX.
In Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Charles served jointly as
Medical Center Director and V.A Regional Office Director, administering annual
budgets in excess of $400 million.
Charles
was a pioneer in the creation of outpatient service centers to meet Veterans’
needs as close to their homes as possible.
He created outpatient clinics on St. Croix, VI, and on the south shore city
of Ponce in Puerto Rico, saving taxpayers money, and Veterans many hours of
travel. In Louisiana, he continued this
pattern, establishing outpatient services in Crowley, LA, and a mobile clinic,
which took screening services to Veterans in Central Louisiana.
Similarly,
Charles was attuned to the special needs of Veterans, and responded by creating
service delivery systems appropriate to their needs. In Puerto Rico, he created a Center for Blind
Veterans, and in Bonham, he established a domiciliary for homeless veterans. In Puerto Rico, Alexandria, and Bonham, he
oversaw the creation and construction of specialized facilities for aging
Veterans.
Because of his background in
Rehabilitation Medicine, Charles was always alert to opportunities for offering
better quality of life and interesting experiences for his patients. These included some relative large projects,
like building a fishing lake at the Alexandria VAMC and an exercise
recreational park at the Bonham VAMC, and smaller innovations, like pet
therapy, gardening therapy, and music, art, and rocking chair therapies.
He also conducted out-reach programs for
veterans and their families in PR, LA, and TX.
The high point of Charles’s military
career occurred in 1990 when the 94th General Hospital was activated
in support of Operation Desert Storm. As
Executive Officer for the 1000 bed General Hospital, Charles, left the
Alexandria VAMC to oversee one of the first major call-ups of a large reserve medical
unit. The difficulties and challenges
were not trivial. Nurses had to leave
children, including infants; physicians in private practice had to find
alternative care-givers for their patients; husbands and wives serving together
had to provide for their children and dependents. Charles took the 972-man unit to Europe,
where he remained until the last troops were recalled. He was literally the last man off the final
flight. In Europe, his troops were
stationed in hospitals in Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Great
Britain, replacing active duty medical personnel who were serving in Kuwait and
Iraq. While stationed in Frankfort, he
visited and oversaw his scattered troops.
Charles’s
future could not have been predicted by the circumstances of his youth. He was the fifth of six sons born to Larnell
Lee (L.L.) and Britt Annie Nunley Freeman.
His father had been born on the same farm, and worked at the local
sawmill. Shortly after the birth of the
6th and last child, a tragedy beset the family. L.L. developed an infected appendix, and
under relatively primitive medical conditions it ruptured. For weeks it appeared that the sole support
for the family would die, leaving them destitute. Against all odds, L.L. survived, but he was
emaciated and greatly weakened. He moved
his family to Houston and sought work in the booming, wartime ship building
industry. A kind-hearted foreman saved
the family by giving L.L. an easy job until he recovered. The family lived in a motel that had been
converted to wartime housing.
They returned to Joaquin in time for
Charles to begin first grade. The six Freeman
boys all played football and attended the First United Methodist Church. The
younger boys, Charles and Dennis, idealized their older brothers. Charles’s talents as a negotiator and
peacemaker, were honed in his youth, sandwiched between two competitors, Dennis
and Dale. Neither of his parents completed
high school, but they wanted more for their children.
Three of his four older brothers were in
service during the Korean War, two in the Air Force in Korea, and one in the
Army in Germany. Charles and his younger
brother, Dennis, were especially close.
At 135 pounds, Charles played Center on a District Championship football
team and a bi-district basketball team.
In Charles’s senior year, his brother Dennis was the star running back. During summers, Charles worked as a lifeguard
at a popular recreational spot, Crystal Lake.
At Crystal Lake, on May 29, 1957, he met his future wife, Frances
Jackson, of Logansport.
Charles
attended Panola Junior College in Carthage, TX, on a baseball scholarship
(catcher), later driving a school bus, transporting students from Logansport
and Joaquin to Carthage. After earning
his AA degree, he transferred to Northwestern State University in Natchitoches,
LA. He chose NSU because Frances was
already enrolled there, and because NSU offered him a job as lifeguard in the
Natatorium.
Earning enough money to stay in college was
always a challenge. Charles enjoyed the
glamor of being a lifeguard, but accepted a better paying job with the
intermural athletic program, later becoming a member of the Campus Security
Force. That job provided a good income,
but really crazy hours, and Charles suffered from a familial problem of
sleepwalking. He was blessed with a
roommate who prevented him, on more than one occasion, from venturing out of
the dormitory wearing only his underwear, hat, and gun.
In
Aug., 1959, when Charles and Frances were married, his roommate was the
official photographer. The newlyweds
moved into “Vet Village” at NSU. Their daughter, Jacqueline Lee, was born in
May, the next week Charles received his B.S.
Two weeks later, he began his master’s program with a certification course
in rehabilitation medicine at Memphis State University. That fall, the little Freeman family returned
to NSU, where Frances and Charles pursued graduate degrees. Charles supported the family by teaching and
coaching basketball at St. Mary’s High School in Natchitoches.
After
receiving his MS degree in administration, Charles was employed by the Dallas
VAMC as a Corrective Therapist. By a
strange twist of fate, his older brother Dale was employed at the same time in
the same department. On the day JFK was
shot, Charles worked his last shift at the Dallas VAMC. The following week, he transferred to the
Shreveport VAMC, where he worked until 1970.
In Shreveport, Charles first became Chief of Corrective Therapy, Chief
of Recreation Therapy, then Coordinator of Rehabilitation Medicine, and finally
Chief of Prosthetics, Orthotics and Sensory Aids. In 1970 he accepted the position of Research
and Education Officer for the VA Prosthetics Center in New York City, where he
worked until 1976, before entering the VA Hospital Director training program. Subsequently, he worked at the Sheridan, WY,
VAMC, the Westside VAMC in Chicago, the Dallas VAMC, the San Juan, PR VAMC, the
Alexandria, LA VAMC, the Bonham, TX VAMC, and the Southeastern Regional Network.
He retired from the VA in 1999.
Charles’s
mother, Britt Annie Nunley Freeman, always wanted one of her six sons to become
a preacher. She was disappointed (at
least for 40 years) when Charles chose another career. In 1996, she was overjoyed when Charles
received his call to enter the ministry.
Charles had worked closely with VA Chaplain programs, creating a
Chaplain training program at the Alexandria VAMC. Over the years, he had always been active in
Church programs, and was especially effective in leading youth groups. In 1997, he became a local pastor in the
United Methodist Church, serving first in the Texas Conference, and then in the
Louisiana Conference at Bethel United Methodist Church in Logansport, LA. This was one of the most rewarding and cherished
periods of his life.
In
2003, tragedy struck the Freeman family, Stephen Joseph McGrade, husband of
their younger daughter, Denise Ruth Freeman McGrade, was stricken with
esophageal cancer, and passed away in August.
Charles and Frances went to Frisco, a northern suburb of Dallas, to
spend a few weeks helping their daughter and grandchildren, and remained for
ten years. Charles assumed a father’s
role in the lives of his grandchildren, Patrick and Sarah McGrade. Charles and
Frances remained in Frisco until the children completed high school, before
returning to Logansport and Joaquin.
During their years in the Dallas area, their oldest granddaughter,
Veronica Lee Perez, lived near-by and attended SMU.
The
Freemans have two daughters, Jacqueline Lee Perez, a teacher of English
literature in Weston, FL and Denise Ruth McGrade, a dentist, in Frisco, TX. Their
son-in-law, Col. Angel Louis Perez is retired from the US Army, and is a
consultant for the U.S. military. They
have four grandchildren, Veronica Lee Perez Mueller, a dentist in Frisco, TX;
Patrick Stephen McGrade, a first year student at Texas Tech School of Medicine;
Carlos Louis Perez, an artist in Frisco, TX; and Sarah Katherine McGrade, a
junior studying communications at UNT in Denton, TX.
This
is an exciting time for the Freeman Family.
On Jan. 2, 2016, Patrick will wed his fiance Samantha Ann Duran. Charles
and Frances will officiate at the service, to be held in the First Baptist
Church of Frisco. In February, 2016, their granddaughter Veronica
Lee Perez Mueller and her husband John Christian Mueller are expecting their
first child (Charles’ and Frances’ first great grandchild).
Charles
and Frances are currently joint operators of Freeman Farms, which includes
properties in Shelby and Panola Counties in Texas and DeSoto, Red River and
Caddo Parishes in Louisiana. Charles has
reassembled the Texas farm, which his grandfather Cullen Freeman originally
owned over a century ago. The farm backs up to wetlands belonging to the State
of Texas along the Sabine River. From
their home it is possible to walk to the River and look across to the Louisiana
shore. Charles likes to say it is really
East Texas (as east as you can get and still be in Texas).
The Freeman’s are active in the First
United Methodist Church of Joaquin, in the Logansport Chamber of Commerce, and
in other civic and service organizations.
Charles is a life member of the American Legion; the Disabled American
Veterans (DAV); the American Veterans (AMVETS); the Veterans of Foreign Wars
(VFW); the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV); and the Forty and Eight; and an
honorary member of the Marine Corps Veterans Association, and the Paralyzed
Veterans’ Association.
UPDATE -- 2021
THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS RECEIVED ON AUG. 2, 2021, FROM MR. JOSE MORILLO. With Jose's permission we have added his letter to this Blog. It helps tell the real story of Charles' life and his contributions to the lives of others:
Today was a very special day for me. I finally got to express my gratitude to a man that impacted my life in the most positive of ways. After too many years, almost 40 years, I was able to track down Mr. Charles Freeman (as I will always know him) to let him know of a story that I’m sure he had no inkling of the crucial role he played in making it happen.
It was the year 1984 in Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico, when I learned that after 4 years of having one goal in mind of getting into Medical School, I was not accepted. I had just finished my Bachelor’s degree in biology and figured out quickly there wasn’t much you could do with a Bachelor’s degree in biology. After my Dad gave me a well needed “talking to” along the lines of “driving on”, I got over myself and started to put the pieces of my life together toward what needed to be a different direction (on a different note, what my Dad said was, being the military guy that he was, FIDO… the nice version: Forget It Drive On! I’ll let you figure out what the not so nice version of that is. To this day, I wear a bracelet that says FIDO which is really interesting considering the career I am now involved in).
At the time, I decided I needed to get to work and figure things out. So, I held 4 jobs. I worked at night at a movie theater making/selling popcorn and other goodies. During the mornings I worked at a children’s summer camp. During the afternoon’s I worked near the Commissary picking up garbage. On Saturday’s, I worked at the Post Office. It just so happens that Mr. Charles Freeman frequented all of these places and apparently saw me there.
One night, while I was working at the movie theater, Mr. Freeman came to see a movie, bought some popcorn from me and said “you sure do work a lot! I see you everywhere”. I told him of my apparent failure with Medical School and told him I was in the process of figuring things out. Now mind you, I knew Mr. Freeman because he frequented our movie theater. However, I knew nothing else about him. I remember Mr. Freeman asking me to come visit him at his work place, the Veteran’s Hospital of Puerto Rico and to bring my resume so that we could talk. I gladly obliged.
I will never forget my experience at the VA hospital. When I made it to the security checkpoint, I let them know I was there to see Mr. Freeman and everyone looked at me strange, as if saying “yeah right”. They called up and they were surprised to hear that Mr. Freeman was waiting for me. When I was taken to his office, I was blown away and actually got quite nervous because it was then that I realized Mr. Freeman might be a big shot around here. Mr. Freeman happily met me at his office, we chatted for a while and he then asked if I’d be interested in working as a Physical Therapy technician at his hospital. I was ecstatic! I subsequently quit all my jobs and went to work for one year at the Physical Therapy Department of the VA hospital of Puerto Rico.
What happened after that was simply life altering for me. I loved Physical Therapy! I loved it so much I applied to the Physical Therapy School of Puerto Rico, got accepted and two years later graduated among the top of my class. I immediately got recruited to work in a small town in Texas called Yoakum, where I quickly moved from a Physical Therapy position to a Chief Physical Therapist position.
My career in healthcare then took off! After various positions and eventually moving to Florida, I became the Director of Rehab and Wellness at a hospital in Punta Gorda, Florida. After many years of doing that, I went on to get my Master’s degree in Business Administration because I wanted to do the same thing that “Mr. Freeman” used to do. So I then moved on into the administrative field where I eventually became the CEO of a hospital in Lehigh Acres, Florida and then the CEO of the hospital I used to be the Director of Rehab and Wellness at (Punta Gorda, FL).
All of this to state that on countless occasions, I’ve told this story to friends; the story of a person who made it in healthcare thanks to a “Mr. Freeman” who gave me a shot. In 2014, I decided to leave healthcare all together and start something of my own. I now own 3 Camp Bow Wow franchises in the Houston area (this is where FIDO comes full circle!). I am married to my High School sweetheart and have an adopted son and three granddaughters. Despite the many trials and tribulations we all invariably go through, my life could not have gone any better.
Through the nearly 4 decades of this story, on too many occasions I’ve researched the name Charles Freeman. I simply had to find this gentleman to say THANK YOU for giving me the opportunity that moved my life into a wondrous path. I have been unsuccessful until today when I ran into a blog on the internet that told the story of Mr. Freeman. When I saw his picture, I will admit I was drawn to tears. I then read that he has a daughter who is a dentist in Frisco, Texas, so with a little more research, I made the call that must have been really awkward for the receptionist that was so gracious in hearing me out.
For too long I’ve been wanting to say Thank you! I feel eternally blessed that I have been offered this opportunity. Mr. Freeman: your actions on that day nearly 40 years ago were instrumental in changing my direction, my outlook, and my view on life. Your actions were a perfect example as to why we must never underestimate the power of a kind word or of offering someone a chance. Your actions were life impacting and you did not even know it! I have made it a point in my life to do the same as you. In fact, my personal mission statement is simple: “impact other people’s lives in a positive way”. I’ve made this my mission because of what I learned from Mr. Charles Freeman.
I am so happy that I found you. May God bless you and your family. May you always know that you have a HUGE fan in this Puerto Rican boy living in Katy, Texas.
