The Fred L. Charles Bench Memorial

Fred L. Charles came to Northern as a member of the original faculty and Professor of Nature study and Biology. Professor Charles inaugurated the student newspaper, The Northern Illinois, held the only faculty membership, at the time, in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and published a volume of his own poetry, Sunshine and Zephyrs. He skillfully motivated students and became an extremely popular and inspirational teacher. Tragically, Professor Charles committed suicide in 1911, and the school hung a bas-relief bronze plaque in Altgeld Hall in his honor. His widow set up a memorial fund in his memory to provide loans for science students, and in 1943 his family requested that the memorial seat should be built with the remainder of the fund. Students of his day recall the line from Aldus Huxley written on the blackboard in his classroom: "Assertion that outstrips evidence is not only a blunder; it is a crime."