Carl
Chatski - computer whiz, social activist, musician
August 15, 1938
- July 24, 2014
Carl Chatski's untimely death on Thursday, July 24, is being
mourned by friends, family, and social activists all over the country.
He was born Carl Bernard Chatzky on August 15, 1938, in Baltimore.
Shortly thereafter, the family moved to the Bronx, NY. Carl graduated
from Stuyvesant H.S. there, and then earned a degree from Johns Hopkins
University. He remained in the Baltimore area until moving to Seattle,
and had moved to Florida in the year preceding his passing. He is
survived by his partner Dr. Shannon Murray of Port St. Lucie, FL; his
sister Eleanor Eisenberg of Phoenix AZ/Santa Cruz, CA; and his daughter
Heather Chaplin, son Jeremy Chatzky, and granddaughter Mariana Gertrude
Chatzky, all of Brooklyn, NY.
Carl was a professional computer
systems designer and a dedicated activist for social justice who donated
his time and skills to many non-profit organizations beginning in the
mid-1980s. A founder of the Baltimore Information Co-op, Carl set up
computer banks for the National Committee in Solidarity with the People
of El Salvador (CISPES) in Washington, DC, and the Central America
Solidarity Committee (CASC) in Baltimore. He also wrote a program, BIC,
to computerize their mailing lists and print mailing labels previously
done manually. To assist the Alternative Press Center in Baltimore in
library research, Carl developed a database to index progressive and
radical periodicals.
Carl was essential to the founding of the
National Security Archive, an independent non-governmental research
institute and library at The George Washington University in Washington,
DC. He created its first database system to assist in systematically
seeking the declassification of secret documents and then indexing them
for use by journalists and scholars. "Without Carl's help during
the Iran Contra hearings, we would never have been able to produce a
daily update of our massive chronology of events for the press,"
said Archive founder Scott Armstrong.
Carl was the Director of
Computer Programming for the General Instrument Corporation in Hunt
Valley, Maryland, throughout the 1980s. Carl wrote the computer code for
the Maryland State Lottery, New York City Welfare Distribution System,
and a number of gaming systems. Carl had a futurist vision of how
technology could be used in the interest of communities for two-way
interactive communication at a time before the advent of the internet as
we know it, and was considered a pioneer of the internet revolution.
Carl envisioned that cable television could be used in that two-way
communication process, and was also active in cable TV issues,
advocating a community access channel and community ownership of cable.
The latter idea came to fruition in the form of Community Media of
Baltimore Channel 75, which broadcasts the Amy Goodman news program.
Carl visited Marshall Eddie Conway in prison, and supported
the efforts of the Black Panther Party to secure the release of this
leader of the Baltimore branch of the Party. He was also helpful to the
Baltimore Welfare Rights organization and designed the first Electronic
Welfare Benefits card system for the State of New York. He helped
street kids confront the Baltimore Police Department (see The Wire) and
helped a taxicab strike against oppressive company owners. Carl also
helped stop the countrywide spread of one of the most corrupt and
predatory gaming & lottery companies by publicizing their corporate
strategy.
For several years, Carl and Shannon helped to organize
a chapter of Food Not Bombs to distribute meals for the homeless in
Baltimore. Carl also supported Food Not Bombs during the 1995
International Gathering in San Francisco, participating in the formation
of the first Indymedia Center. Carl also collaborated with Charlie Cook of the National
Organization of the Blind to develop a computer-controlled Braille
display, with pins that changed position to represent Braille characters
based on computer signals.
Carl first developed his strong
interest and love of folk music and traditions at a time when
traditional music was spreading from the countryside to the cities. He
was for a time a housemate of the Appalachian musician Hazel Dickens
(whose older brother Arnold named his son after Carl). He became an
accomplished player of the guitar, banjo, and mandolin, as well as a
singer, and was an active musician until the end of his life. Carl was
featured (under the name Carl Hawkins) with the Stanley brothers on a
number of recordings including the Smithsonian Folkways Recording
"Friends of old time music: The folk arrival 1961-1965," released in
2006. As well as the Stanley Brothers, Carl played and performed with
Peter Rowan, Mike Munford, John Glik, Del McCoury, Jack Cooke, Lamar
Grier and others. He always loved the music of workers and protest, and
sang very old songs and ballads. In 2012, Carl recorded "First Will and
Testament," a CD with his own arrangements of traditional songs, on
which a number of longtime friends joined him: John Glik, Mike Munford,
Walker Teret, Russ Hooper, Tommy Neal, Dorelei McMillan, and Hazel
Dickens's nephew, Arnold 'Buddy' Dickens. He was a longtime and valued
teacher of bluegrass music through the University of Washington,
Seattle, Experimental College, and mentored many instrumentalists and
singers.
Food
Not Bombs
P.O. Box 424, Arroyo Seco, NM 87514 USA
575-770-3377
1-800-884-1136
menu@foodnotbombs.net
www.foodnotbombs.net