On May 8, 1945, the war in Europe ended
and Charlie would be going home. It was
July 4th when the ship bringing him back to
the United States viewed the Statue of Liberty.
Home on a 30-day leave, Charlie was in
Madisonville when the Atomic Bomb dropped
on Hiroshima. The war was not over. At Fort
Belvoir in Virginia, he and fellow servicemen
took a break from the intense training for
the planned invasion of Japan and traveled to
Washington, D.C. On August 14, 1945, while
enjoying dinner at the famous Willard Hotel,
their waitress announced that Japan had
surrendered. Charlie was actually in Lafayette
Park, across from the White House, when
President Truman threw his arms upward
announcing victory. “ The President came
out. So did Mrs. Truman and their daughter,
Margaret. They were not 50 yards from us,”
remembered Charlie.
With the war over, he returned to UT and
graduated with a degree in agricultural
education in 1948. That same year, Charlie
married, and Ed Boling was his best man.
Following graduation, Charlie taught
Vocational Agriculture at Loudon High School.
After teaching for three years, Brakebill was
commissioned by the U.S. Air Force to serve
on active duty for which he continued serving
in the Tennessee National Guard until his
retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1967.
In 1962, Ed Boling, who was the University
of Tennessee’s first vice president for
development, convinced UT that his best
friend from World War II should join him in
the new development office. Charlie became
UT’s Director of Gifts and Grants.
Military service may have ended, but the
friendship continued to grow and so did
the dedicated service to community, state
and alma-mater. Charlie and Ed returned
home from WWII to serve their state and
university side by side, resulting in an
impact that is immeasurable. Brakebill was
the principal architect of the university’s
nationally recognized fundraising program,
retiring in 1996. And that best friend, Boling
would become the most beloved university
president, guiding the institution into
the statewide system of today, retiring
in 1988 after serving the longest term
in school history.
The legacy is vast for Charlie and the
University of Tennessee, who had big smiles
as he shared amazing details. “Did you know
I was the model for the Torchbearer,” he
asked. “If not for me, that statue would just
be something on campus, not the landmark
of today.” The details of that story are
almost as famous as the statue. So it goes
that in the late 1960s, the campus planner
took Charlie with a true to size cutout of
the Torchbearer to a location. He was then
asked to hold it as the planner drove around
it. As embarrassment was taking hold, the
planner traded places, asking Charlie to
drive around. After it was all over, Brakebill
30 McMINN LIFE HOLIDAY/WINTER 2020