Charles “Chuck” Stogel is a lifelong resident of the City of White Plains, NY. He graduated from White Plains High School, Class of 1964. Graduated Utica College of Syracuse University, 1971, Bachelor of Science, Journalism/Public Relations.
Although there was an eight-year period back in the mid-to-latter Twentieth Century (1964-72) when he lived, schooled and worked alternately for a portion of each year in both White Plains and upstate Oneida County, NY, Chuck has continually maintained his White Plains citizenship.
Chuck was born in January, 1947, in the then relatively “new” White Plains Hospital building at the corner of Davis Avenue and what is now called East Post Road. The hospital, which originally opened in 1893 on Chatterton Hill, and then moved in 1897 to Lexington Avenue around the corner from where it now stands, was relocated again to its current location in 1907 and eventually constructed a new, modern building in 1939, the one in which Chuck was born.
Recently, Chuck and his family marked the Stogel’s centennial as residents of White Plains. His son, Mitchell, is a fourth generation Plainsman, dating back to when Chuck’s grandparents Anne and Charles Stogel moved from Newton in northern New Jersey to the County Seat of Westchester in 1922 with Chuck’s then one-year old father, Sanford “Sandy” Stogel, and his older sister, Dorothy. Originally, the family settled on Chestnut Hill Avenue, which is above and between Fisher Avenue and West Post Road, and then relocated around the corner to a large three-story house on Fisher Avenue, which is where Chuck grew up until he was 15 years old. In 1962 Chuck’s parents, along with his three sisters — Leah, Jayne and Lori — moved to the Highlands, purchasing a house on Ralph Avenue, directly across the street from Ralph Avenue Field. Nowadays, Chuck and his wife Christine (nee Seldal, of Queens, NY), who were married in 1976, live only a few more blocks removed from downtown, in a house on Ridgeway that they purchased in 1977.
“I love White Plains,” said Chuck. “I have loved living here, growing up here, going to school here, working here. I love the neighborhoods, and the small-town feel. I really enjoyed growing up on “old” Fisher Avenue, and romping around the old, huge Fisher Avenue Playground which was located on the corner between Bank Street and Irving Place across from the current Main Post Office building.” That parcel previously was home to Public School No. 2, a forerunner to the present Rochambeau School up the street, and currently is where a gas station and automotive garage are located. The old playground, which during its time was the largest freestanding playground in the city, was rebuilt with a swimming pool and renamed Kittrel Park, immediately across Irving Place and next to a now truncated Home Street on land that formerly housed a few stores along with deteriorating apartment buildings.
Over the years, Chuck has had a variety of jobs, dating back to his teenage years as a newspaper delivery boy for the Reporter Dispatch in the Fisher Avenue neighborhood. “That was back in an era when newspapers still thrived in print. The Reporter Dispatch, which has since been consolidated into Gannett’s Journal News banner, cost about a quarter and was published at that time six afternoons a week (Monday-Saturday). “I delivered 110 papers in a very hilly area that stretched from South Lexington Avenue up to Midland Avenue, and included Chestnut and Ridgeview Hills, and Westmoreland Avenue. I saved enough money from delivering newspapers, and from tips, so that in 1963 I purchased my first car, a 1954 standard shift Chevrolet Bel-Air, for $150 from one of the used auto lots along Westchester Avenue, near the old B. Altman & Co. department store and Paulding Street, where the P.F. Chang’s restaurant in The Westchester mall is now located.”
Since those days delivering newspapers, Chuck has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor — cityside municipal beat, plus lifestyles, business and sports — in both White Plains and Utica, NY, plus radio (music, news and sports, including three seasons as a minor league ice hockey announcer), the family furniture business, several magazines based in Manhattan, and as a college basketball correspondent covering Iona and Manhattan colleges for more than 25 years for the Associated Press.
Grandpa Charles, a carpenter by trade, built custom furniture out of a shop on Brookfield Street, which transitioned over time into also carrying ready-made furniture. With Chuck’s father Sandy eventually taking over the furniture store, the business merged with another and relocated under the banner of Callan Furniture Co. to 36 Main Street, just around the corner from the old Depot Plaza and train station. When Urban Renewal No. 1 materialized, Callan Furniture relocated to 149 Main Street, at the corner of Spring Street, occupying the former W.T. Grant Co. building (W.T. Grant was known as a “25 cent store,” just a few doors away on Main Street from F.W. Woolworth, which itself had pioneered the “five-and-dime” retail concept in the 1800s). When the City of White Plains invoked Urban Renewal No. 2, Callan Furniture relocated again, this time to 20 Tarrytown Road, next to the Westchester County Center, in a building that had been a Finast supermarket and, after the Stogel family sold the furniture business, then became retailers such as CompUSA, Staples and CVS.
Additional background:
WHITE PLAINS DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION AND PARKS
1963-69: Publicity director of summer programs, seven seasons.
Liaison with media, coordinate special events, publish free distribution weekly (circ. 1,000). News releases, activities supervisor.
UTICA DAILY PRESS AND OBSERVER DISPATCH
1965-72: Seven years, part then full time, assignment and desk work, sports, city desk reporter, business and entertainment departments.
Amassed and edited Utica Newspaper 24-page annual supplement: 1970 Business Review/1971 Forecast. Published Jan. 26, 1971.
Year-round sports and city news coverage. Preps, colleges, pros. All sports. Municipal, business and lecture reporting. Dramatic, musical, art, restaurant, special events reviewing.
WZOW-FM, 107.3, UTICA, NY
January-September, 1970: The Super Session Show. Produced, programmed, sold advertising, wrote copy, engineered, co-anchored, music and variety program. Aired late night, six times weekly.
September 1970-September 1971: Daytime announcer and engineer. Wrote and announced news, sports, music, commercial spots.
1969-70, 1970-71, 1971-72: Play-by-play and color commentator as part of two-man broadcast team for the Clinton Comets of the Eastern Hockey League. All 74 regular season games, plus playoffs, home and away.
WESTCHESTER ROCKLAND NEWSPAPERS
Aug. 1975-Dec. 1978: Sports editor, The Reporter Dispatch, 1 Gannett Dr., White Plains, NY. Supervise eight-person staff, seven days per week, scheduling of assignments and coverage for four editions of the newspaper, circ. 50,000+.
Jan. 1979-March 1986: Assistant sports editor & beat reporter, Westchester Rockland Newspapers group, 11 dailies, two weeklies, circ. 210,000-240,000.
Supervise and co-assign all schedules and assignments for 43-person staff, including nine-person sports copy desk.
Travel to cover U.S. Open and PGA golf championships, Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, Kentucky Derby. Coverage of all New York-New Jersey area golf, PGA Tour, LPGA Tour. Beat, news and feature coverage. Iona and St. John’s college basketball, NFL Giants football. Also pro hockey, pro basketball. Curling. Equestrian. All sports, all levels.
Olympics: 1976 Summer Games, Montreal; 1980 Winter Games, Lake Placid, NY.
TIMES HERALD-RECORD
March 1986-April 1987: Executive sports editor, Times Herald-Record, Middletown, NY, flagship of Dow Jones-owned Ottaway Newspapers group. AM tabloid, circ. 85,000 daily, 96,000 Sunday.
Full administrative supervision, staff of 21. Budget planning, departmental scheduling and assignments.
SPORTS INC.
Oct. 1987-April 1989: Beat editor/writer for Sports Inc., The Sports Business Weekly, 3 Park Ave., New York, NY 10016. A Times Mirror business magazine (has ceased publication).
Responsibility for weekly news and feature coverage. Travel to major events, conventions, trade shows. Maintain industry contacts and sources. Coverage of sports from a business perspective.
Coordinator “Issues in Golf Technology: Today and the Future,” sponsored by Sports Inc. and Spalding. Panel discussion held Jan. 30, 1989, at Peabody Hotel, Orlando, Fla., in conjunction with annual PGA Merchandise Show. Attendance: 200-plus. Arrange agenda, speakers, facility, publicity.
THE SPORTING NEWS
July 1989-February 1991: New York Bureau Chief. 2 Park Ave., New York. A Time Mirror weekly publication.
Responsibility for editing, writing, creative ideas for two-page weekly section in The Sporting News (circ. 750,000). Dual focus on sports business and sports on TV. Conceived and launched annual section: The 100 Most Powerful People in Sports.
THE STOGEL COMPANIES
Jan. 1991-March 1993: event management, marketing and public relations, specializing in sports events/activities, sports personnel/media, TV sports.
Projects/clients include:
Publicity/public relations for ABC Sports. Focus on golf, tennis, New York City marathon and college football schedule, with additional work on other properties.
Publicity/pr for CBS Sports. Focus on golf, Winter Olympics, pro football, college basketball schedule, other properties. Produce media kit for NCAA Tournament.
Consultant to The Independence Group, an America’s Cup candidate.
Associate director, 1991 & 1992, Mitsubishi Motors Worldwide Pro-Am, a three-day, 54-hole event in Phoenix/Scottsdale with $200,000 purse and field of top LPGA Tour players (on Prime Network, 1991; ESPN, 1992). All operational, promotional, marketing phases of the event.
Consultant/media director, 1992 Yale University Pro-Am Golf Classic, a fund-raising event with players from the Senior PGA Tour.
Event management & administration, sponsor solicitation, press/public relations for the Boxing Centennial Group Inc., an organization conducting the Centennial of Boxing in America in 1992.
BRANDWEEK/MEDIAWEEK
March 1993-September 2009: Managing editor, Brandweek & Mediaweek magazines. Weekly trade magazines, part of The Nielsen Co. Business Media Group, covering the marketing of products and services, and the media communications business, in America.
Assign & edit stories, co-manage staff, liaison with company contacts, supervise production of all pages, travel to report and write stories.
Additionally:
Publicity director, member of Executive Committee and public address announcer, 1973-present (50+ years), Loucks Memorial Track & Field Games, White Plains, NY, the largest on-campus high school invitational in the USA.
Public address announcer, White Plains (NY) High School sports (fall, winter, spring) since 2009. Also have announced football for John Jay High School, Mamaroneck High School, NYSPHSAA Section 1.
Iona University, New Rochelle, NY: Official scorekeeper men’s and women’s basketball since 2010. Previously, PA announcer, scoreboard/clock operator.
Public address announcer, Archbishop Stepinac basketball and occasional football, White Plains, NY, since 2015.
May 1971-Feb. 1972: Producer for Utica, NY, area music concerts. Booking, tickets, promotion. Groups included Willie Dixon Chicago Blues All Stars, If, Magic Ring, Mason Proffitt, Delaney & Bonnie.
Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, 1968.
Public relations assistant, Oneida County (NY) Community Action Agency, 1968.
Member Pi Delta Epsilon, national honorary journalism fraternity.
Numerous professional memberships. Current president Metropolitan Basketball Writers Assn. (since 1980). Associated Press college basketball correspondent for 25 years. Past member AP Top 25 college basketball poll, 1981-87. Past president of Metropolitan Golf Writers Assn, current member MGWA Board of Directors and activities chairman.
Published by The Associated Press, Washington Post, The Sporting News, Sport, Eastern Basketball, Golf, Golfweek, Met Golfer, Golf Digest, SportStyle, Golf Pro Merchandiser, Golf Shop Operations, Tennis Buyer’s Guide, PGA Magazine, Southern Links, Racing Action, Hoof Beats, Oui, SportsEye, Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Inside Media, Wall Street Journal, Newsday, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Times, Chapel Hill Newspaper.
Official program material provided for: Nynex Commemorative Senior PGA Tour event, Buick (Westchester) Classic PGA Tour event, USGA Guide, The Hambletonian, Fordham and Iona College basketball, The Meadowlands, Madison Square Garden, National Invitation Tournament, NCAA, New York Knickerbockers.
Co-author “USA Sports 1996 Traveler’s & TV Viewer’s Guide” to the top golf courses on the PGA, LPGA and Senior PGA Tours. Edited by USA Today. Published by MacMillan. ISBN: 002860475X.
New York State Special Olympics, Outstanding Media Award, 1983.
Dave Anderson Award, to be presented Oct. 11, 2023, by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association, in “Recognition of exemplary service by unique individuals in the golf community.”
Public speaking includes college career groups, professional associations.
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