Board Members
Charlie Claggett
Secretary
Charlie is Nicholas’s uncle. He is a writer, author, retired advertising and marketing executive. He loves anything having to do with water except drowning.
Before retiring in 2016, Charlie had a long career in advertising and marketing. Most recently he was VP of Marketing, Warson Brands; and before that he was Managing Director, Chief Creative Officer of D'Arcy Advertising in St. Louis where he served for 28 years.
He was elected to the St. Louis Media History Foundation Advertising Hall of Fame in 2008. He was named by Advertising Age as being one of the top 100 "Brightest and Best" people in advertising and has received more than 80 national and international creative awards. Charlie is most noted for authoring the line "This Bud's for you" in 1979.
His first book, Max Starkloff and the Fight for Disability Rights, published by the Missouri History Museum in 2014, won an IPPY Award and an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.
Charlie has served on a number of boards including the Salvation Army Advisory Board, Children’s Hospital Advisory Board, Urban League, Boy Scouts of America, St. Louis Chapter, Grace Hill Settlement House, and Bellefontaine Cemetery. He was Chairman of the Advisory Board at Webster University School of Communications, where he taught Advertising Creative Strategy as an adjunct professor. He is currently a Gold Star board member of the Starkloff Disability Institute and serves on the board of the Missouri Historical Society. He and his wife, Katie, currently co-chair the Racial Justice Committee at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Ladue.
Among other sports, Charlie is an avid sailor, water skier, river floater, snorkeler, and beach bum. A competitive swimmer in high school, he once held a Red Cross Life Saving Certificate, and years ago did save someone from drowning on a Missouri river float trip.
He lives in St. Louis with his wife Katie. They have three daughters, Elissa, Julia, and Phoebe, and four grandchildren. Everyone swims except the 10-month-old, and lessons for her will begin shortly.