Chuck was born into an unassuming, quintessentially 1950s home in south central Pennsylvania.
His mother, to whom he was devoted, died at 28 when he was nine. He was remembered as crying uncontrollably by her coffin, and he never fully recovered from the loss.
He always spoke lovingly of his maternal grandfather and grandmother, and throughout his growing-up and adult years, they and other family members, including his father (Charles Frank Gipple Sr.), stepmother (Mary Sanders Gipple), sister (Debra Radnovich), and aunts (Vicki K. Welker and Joan E. Gipple), were there for him in various meaningful ways. Family members called him "Charlie," while everyone else knew him as "Chuck."
As an adult, he worked in retail, including for some years as a clerk at J. C. Penney's in Harrisburg. Very sociable, he always had a large number of friends—and kept as many as eight house cats as pets. He enjoyed dancing and was good at it. He attended Harrisburg's Metropolitan Community Church.
Chuck was a social activist. He sold AIDS ribbons to friends and strangers to raise money to fight the disease. He spoke to an elementary school class about HIV and was gratified to receive a packet of individual thank-you notes from the children. He marched in the April 25, 1993, March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
A month later on May 23, Chuck spearheaded AIDS Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization Day in Harrisburg, and was very conscientious that every aspect of the event would be well executed. Chuck and others addressed the audience; he sang a duet with a friend; a garden with a yin-and-yang design in marigolds was dedicated; and a reception followed. For the event Gov. Robert Casey issued a proclamation.
That responsibility discharged, Chuck moved to southern Delaware, where he again worked in retail. He worshiped as an Episcopalian, and in his free time he enjoyed the ocean and spending time with friends.
To pay for a milestone birthday surprise party he threw for a friend in March 1994, he sold his high school class ring. This was only one of many examples of his generosity, though he could ill afford it.
Neuromuscular symptoms increased throughout 1994 and by August, Chuck was hospitalized with AIDS, visiting nurses no longer sufficient. By this time he could not walk, so used a wheelchair.
Throughout the course of his increasing debility, Chuck never complained, but bore it all stolidly. Indeed, he even kept his dry sense of humor for a time. Once, a friend visited Chuck, who was now bedfast, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time!" Chuck replied, "Whose fault is that?"
From the hospital he went to a nursing home in October of 1994, where a portrait of his mother he had sketched from a photograph in high school was hung by his bedside. The last thing he is known to have said was to a friend who helped manage his care: "I'm sorry to put you through this." He died peacefully on the day after Easter without any sign of discomfort or anxiety—but the nursing assistants gathered and sobbed openly outside his door. He was 38.
Chuck died just months before the multi-drug "cocktail" would be introduced and would dramatically improve the outcomes of people with HIV.
Services were held in both his Delaware church and in his previous church in Harrisburg, in keeping with the Christian faith which he had embraced many years previously and took seriously.
Despite the setbacks and disappointments in his life, he was a funny, generous and loving man.
His mother, to whom he was devoted, died at 28 when he was nine. He was remembered as crying uncontrollably by her coffin, and he never fully recovered from the loss.
He always spoke lovingly of his maternal grandfather and grandmother, and throughout his growing-up and adult years, they and other family members, including his father (Charles Frank Gipple Sr.), stepmother (Mary Sanders Gipple), sister (Debra Radnovich), and aunts (Vicki K. Welker and Joan E. Gipple), were there for him in various meaningful ways. Family members called him "Charlie," while everyone else knew him as "Chuck."
As an adult, he worked in retail, including for some years as a clerk at J. C. Penney's in Harrisburg. Very sociable, he always had a large number of friends—and kept as many as eight house cats as pets. He enjoyed dancing and was good at it. He attended Harrisburg's Metropolitan Community Church.
Chuck was a social activist. He sold AIDS ribbons to friends and strangers to raise money to fight the disease. He spoke to an elementary school class about HIV and was gratified to receive a packet of individual thank-you notes from the children. He marched in the April 25, 1993, March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
A month later on May 23, Chuck spearheaded AIDS Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization Day in Harrisburg, and was very conscientious that every aspect of the event would be well executed. Chuck and others addressed the audience; he sang a duet with a friend; a garden with a yin-and-yang design in marigolds was dedicated; and a reception followed. For the event Gov. Robert Casey issued a proclamation.
That responsibility discharged, Chuck moved to southern Delaware, where he again worked in retail. He worshiped as an Episcopalian, and in his free time he enjoyed the ocean and spending time with friends.
To pay for a milestone birthday surprise party he threw for a friend in March 1994, he sold his high school class ring. This was only one of many examples of his generosity, though he could ill afford it.
Neuromuscular symptoms increased throughout 1994 and by August, Chuck was hospitalized with AIDS, visiting nurses no longer sufficient. By this time he could not walk, so used a wheelchair.
Throughout the course of his increasing debility, Chuck never complained, but bore it all stolidly. Indeed, he even kept his dry sense of humor for a time. Once, a friend visited Chuck, who was now bedfast, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time!" Chuck replied, "Whose fault is that?"
From the hospital he went to a nursing home in October of 1994, where a portrait of his mother he had sketched from a photograph in high school was hung by his bedside. The last thing he is known to have said was to a friend who helped manage his care: "I'm sorry to put you through this." He died peacefully on the day after Easter without any sign of discomfort or anxiety—but the nursing assistants gathered and sobbed openly outside his door. He was 38.
Chuck died just months before the multi-drug "cocktail" would be introduced and would dramatically improve the outcomes of people with HIV.
Services were held in both his Delaware church and in his previous church in Harrisburg, in keeping with the Christian faith which he had embraced many years previously and took seriously.
Despite the setbacks and disappointments in his life, he was a funny, generous and loving man.
Chuck was born into an unassuming, quintessentially 1950s home in south central Pennsylvania.
His mother, to whom he was devoted, died at 28 when he was nine. He was remembered as crying uncontrollably by her coffin, and he never fully recovered from the loss.
He always spoke lovingly of his maternal grandfather and grandmother, and throughout his growing-up and adult years, they and other family members, including his father (Charles Frank Gipple Sr.), stepmother (Mary Sanders Gipple), sister (Debra Radnovich), and aunts (Vicki K. Welker and Joan E. Gipple), were there for him in various meaningful ways. Family members called him "Charlie," while everyone else knew him as "Chuck."
As an adult, he worked in retail, including for some years as a clerk at J. C. Penney's in Harrisburg. Very sociable, he always had a large number of friends—and kept as many as eight house cats as pets. He enjoyed dancing and was good at it. He attended Harrisburg's Metropolitan Community Church.
Chuck was a social activist. He sold AIDS ribbons to friends and strangers to raise money to fight the disease. He spoke to an elementary school class about HIV and was gratified to receive a packet of individual thank-you notes from the children. He marched in the April 25, 1993, March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
A month later on May 23, Chuck spearheaded AIDS Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization Day in Harrisburg, and was very conscientious that every aspect of the event would be well executed. Chuck and others addressed the audience; he sang a duet with a friend; a garden with a yin-and-yang design in marigolds was dedicated; and a reception followed. For the event Gov. Robert Casey issued a proclamation.
That responsibility discharged, Chuck moved to southern Delaware, where he again worked in retail. He worshiped as an Episcopalian, and in his free time he enjoyed the ocean and spending time with friends.
To pay for a milestone birthday surprise party he threw for a friend in March 1994, he sold his high school class ring. This was only one of many examples of his generosity, though he could ill afford it.
Neuromuscular symptoms increased throughout 1994 and by August, Chuck was hospitalized with AIDS, visiting nurses no longer sufficient. By this time he could not walk, so used a wheelchair.
Throughout the course of his increasing debility, Chuck never complained, but bore it all stolidly. Indeed, he even kept his dry sense of humor for a time. Once, a friend visited Chuck, who was now bedfast, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time!" Chuck replied, "Whose fault is that?"
From the hospital he went to a nursing home in October of 1994, where a portrait of his mother he had sketched from a photograph in high school was hung by his bedside. The last thing he is known to have said was to a friend who helped manage his care: "I'm sorry to put you through this." He died peacefully on the day after Easter without any sign of discomfort or anxiety—but the nursing assistants gathered and sobbed openly outside his door. He was 38.
Chuck died just months before the multi-drug "cocktail" would be introduced and would dramatically improve the outcomes of people with HIV.
Services were held in both his Delaware church and in his previous church in Harrisburg, in keeping with the Christian faith which he had embraced many years previously and took seriously.
Despite the setbacks and disappointments in his life, he was a funny, generous and loving man.
His mother, to whom he was devoted, died at 28 when he was nine. He was remembered as crying uncontrollably by her coffin, and he never fully recovered from the loss.
He always spoke lovingly of his maternal grandfather and grandmother, and throughout his growing-up and adult years, they and other family members, including his father (Charles Frank Gipple Sr.), stepmother (Mary Sanders Gipple), sister (Debra Radnovich), and aunts (Vicki K. Welker and Joan E. Gipple), were there for him in various meaningful ways. Family members called him "Charlie," while everyone else knew him as "Chuck."
As an adult, he worked in retail, including for some years as a clerk at J. C. Penney's in Harrisburg. Very sociable, he always had a large number of friends—and kept as many as eight house cats as pets. He enjoyed dancing and was good at it. He attended Harrisburg's Metropolitan Community Church.
Chuck was a social activist. He sold AIDS ribbons to friends and strangers to raise money to fight the disease. He spoke to an elementary school class about HIV and was gratified to receive a packet of individual thank-you notes from the children. He marched in the April 25, 1993, March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
A month later on May 23, Chuck spearheaded AIDS Candlelight Memorial and Mobilization Day in Harrisburg, and was very conscientious that every aspect of the event would be well executed. Chuck and others addressed the audience; he sang a duet with a friend; a garden with a yin-and-yang design in marigolds was dedicated; and a reception followed. For the event Gov. Robert Casey issued a proclamation.
That responsibility discharged, Chuck moved to southern Delaware, where he again worked in retail. He worshiped as an Episcopalian, and in his free time he enjoyed the ocean and spending time with friends.
To pay for a milestone birthday surprise party he threw for a friend in March 1994, he sold his high school class ring. This was only one of many examples of his generosity, though he could ill afford it.
Neuromuscular symptoms increased throughout 1994 and by August, Chuck was hospitalized with AIDS, visiting nurses no longer sufficient. By this time he could not walk, so used a wheelchair.
Throughout the course of his increasing debility, Chuck never complained, but bore it all stolidly. Indeed, he even kept his dry sense of humor for a time. Once, a friend visited Chuck, who was now bedfast, and said, "I haven't seen you for a long time!" Chuck replied, "Whose fault is that?"
From the hospital he went to a nursing home in October of 1994, where a portrait of his mother he had sketched from a photograph in high school was hung by his bedside. The last thing he is known to have said was to a friend who helped manage his care: "I'm sorry to put you through this." He died peacefully on the day after Easter without any sign of discomfort or anxiety—but the nursing assistants gathered and sobbed openly outside his door. He was 38.
Chuck died just months before the multi-drug "cocktail" would be introduced and would dramatically improve the outcomes of people with HIV.
Services were held in both his Delaware church and in his previous church in Harrisburg, in keeping with the Christian faith which he had embraced many years previously and took seriously.
Despite the setbacks and disappointments in his life, he was a funny, generous and loving man.
