Charles L. Bennett

Charles Bennett, 83, of Cannon Beach, Oregon died August 28, 2026. His death was due to complications from melanoma.

Charles Bennett was born in Greenville, Texas May 6, 1943, the only child of Sterling and Louise Bennett. He was named after his uncle. Charles attended elementary school in Greenville, where he enjoyed spending time with his cousins. He attended middle school in Dennison, Texas and went to high school in both Mt. Vernon and Snyder, Texas. Charles graduated from Snyder High School in 1961 as class valedictorian. Throughout high school Charles worked, mostly pumping gas and washing windshields.

Between 1961 and 1963, Charles attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock where he studied physics. In 1963, he transferred to the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in practical and theoretical mathematics and minored in English and linguistics, including French, German, Swahili, and Arabic. In 1965, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree. Charles enjoyed Austin, where he had the most fun of his life.

In the summer of 1965, Charles' interest in linguistics took him to the American University of Cairo to study Arabic. On the trip to Cairo, he saw the Atlantic Ocean and visited a foreign country for the first time.

In 1966, Charles studied linguistics on a National Defense Education Act (NDEA) fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin.

In September, 1966, although still deferred from the draft, Charles enlisted in the Navy. After graduating from Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, Charles became an Officer at Naval Security Group headquarters in Washington, D.C.

When the Six-Day War broke out in June of 1967, Charles was flown from Washington DC to the USS Little Rock, the flagship of the 6th fleet. The cruiser was responding to the attack on an American intelligence gathering ship, the USS Liberty, off the coast of the Sinai Peninsula. Charles translated intercepted Egyptian communications, inventoried sensitive documents presumed lost from the USS Liberty, and took photographs of the damaged ship with his personal Zeiss Ikon Contarex camera. The Navy kept his photos until he left the service.

After leaving the Navy in 1969, Charles went into accountancy, earning his MBA at the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. Later, he became a Certified Public Accountant and worked at the CPA firm of Ernst & Ernst in Houston and Seattle from 1971 until 1978. Next, he worked for Peoples National Bank in Seattle from 1978 to 1985, where he served as Director of Audit, and later as Controller.

Seeking a creative pivot, Bennett enrolled at the Art Institute of Seattle in 1985, where he graduated with a degree in photography in 1987. The Art Institute's rigorous program formalized his skills in print making and the Zone System. While there, he did a shoot for Horizon Airlines, but what he really enjoyed was making and printing his own photographs. Nevertheless, he soon realized that making a living as a photographer would be difficult.

Charles went on to become Chief Financial Officer at the retail art and framing corporation, INPRINTS, in Seattle for seven years.

Beginning in 1995, Charles worked at the University of Washington in various capacities, including developing internal financial reports, overseeing the University's Payroll Office, overseeing the University's Endowment Fund, and shooting images for the University's Annual Report.

Charles retired from the University of Washington at age 69 and relocated from Seattle to Cannon Beach, Oregon in 2012. He served the Cannon Beach community as a member of the Cannon Beach Planning Commission for several years. Nearly every Thursday and Monday morning he had coffee with friends and neighbors at Sea Level Bakery + Coffee in Cannon Beach.

During retirement, Charles enjoyed photography and travel, often with his friend and fellow photographer Gordon Glass. He traveled extensively with a camera, joining National Geographic expeditions to Morocco, Spain, Tanzania, and Ireland, and photographing wildlife in the Serengeti and the Okavango Delta. He also spent extended periods in France, Italy, and Key West, while continually documenting the landscapes closer to home along the Oregon coast, the Palouse, and near Waterville, Washington.

Charles Bennett’s photography was defined by a keen eye for symmetry, graphic composition, and structural order. When capturing vast, sweeping landscapes, he anchored his frames with powerful geometrical lines that grounded the view, often pairing them with dramatic, heavy skies filled with prominent clouds. Whether he photographed expansive landscapes, local people, or native wildlife, his style remained unmistakable, compelling the viewer's eye to follow his dramatic, intentional lines. A selection of his photographs can be viewed at: https://tinyurl.com/Charles-Bennett.

Charles had many good friends in Cannon Beach and elsewhere. He was known for his dignity, humility, generosity, and wonderful sense of humor. Charles lived a full life that was filled with adventure and accomplishment. He was a gentleman who will be well-remembered and deeply missed. Charles is survived by cousins, including Karen McCullough.