About the Author

Charles Gordon Rex was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on June 20, 1909, into a family of nine brothers and sisters. His father, Charles George Rex, an immigrant from England, was a carpenter who worked on some of Springfield's largest buildings. Ill health struck early in the younger Charles' life when at the age of three he came down with polio which left him paralyzed from the waist down and partially paralyzed in his right hand, thereby virtually confining him to a wheelchair for most of his life, although for a time he was able to use heavy braces and crutches. However, the polio had also caused severe scoliosis of his spine with the result that he was often in great pain. In spite of these handicaps, it became obvious in childhood that he was gifted with extraordinary intelligence and musical ability, but due to the complete lack of educational facilities for the handicapped in his area, his early schooling and musical studies were virtually self-taught. Nonetheless, he was an avid reader from an early age and started writing poetry in his teenage years. He managed to learn piano and violin and acquired a remarkable amount of proficiency on these instruments in spite of the partial paralysis of his right hand, enough so that he played violin as a member of a local orchestra. In 1964, he developed colon cancer that was cured by surgery. In 1966, the family broke up, and Rex moved to Tallahassee, Florida to be near one of his sons who was attending Florida State University. Suffering from increasing depression, he barely survived a suicide attempt in August of 1970. After his recovery, he still continued to write poetry. He ultimately moved back to Springfield in 1972 and died of a stroke on April 23, 1973. Violinist Charles Rex, former Associate Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, was born into a musical family in Winter Park, Florida, where his father was a composer and instructor at Rollins College, and his mother taught piano. He started his violin studies at age four under Alphonse Carlo, professor of violin at Rollins. Following his solo debut with the Florida Symphony at age thirteen, Mr. Rex won the Hinda Honigmann Scholarship Award to the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina and toured as soloist with the BMC Orchestra throughout North and South Carolina. Mr. Rex retired from the New York Philharmonic in 2017 and taught for two years as Professor and Chair of Music History at the Holy Apostles College and Seminary where he was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in the spring of 2019.