Charles F. Ankrom

(1936 - 2009)

Born: November 7, 1936, Parkersburg, West Virginia

Died: Palm City, Florida, at age 72

At the age of 8 or 9, Charles took a job as a caddy or ball boy at a local golf club, where he started to appreciate the game of golf. He soon took up the sport and became a scratch golfer.

He was a student at at West Virginia University in 1955. In 1956 he studied at Eli Frank School Design Arts in Tampa, Florida.

From 1960 to 1964, he trained with golf course architects Dave Wallace and Lorn Parrish. He left in 1964 accepting a position with General Development Corporation as Executive Director of Golf and Corporate Golf Course Architect, based out of Sandpiper in Port St. Lucie where he remained there until 1970. He then assumed the same position with Boise Cascade Recreation Communities Group in Palo Alto, Calif., before returning to the Florida Treasure Coast in 1973. At that point, he developed his own design, planning and consulting company, Charles F. Ankrom, Inc., which he ran until 2008, the year before his death.