Charlene Denise (Powell) Wall

The Celebration of Life Service for Mrs. Wall will be livestreamed on the Facebook Page of Fisher Memorial Funeral Parlor.

FACE MASKS ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL VIEWINGS!!!

Charlene Denise Powell Wall, 67, passed away on Friday, August 9, 2024, at Novant Presbyterian Medical Center, in Charlotte, NC.  Born December 17, 1956, in Durham, NC, to Mrs. Doris (Powell) Brown.  She preceded in death her husband of 32 years, James E. Wall Jr., her two brothers Jonathan Powell and Kenneth Powell, her brother-in-law Milton Grant, her sister-in-law Constance Wall, and her niece Melissa DeRadcliffe.

Charlene strongly believed in and supported education.  She was known as a lover of books and a student of history.  She graduated from Hillside High School Class of 1974 then went on to North Carolina State University where she received her bachelor’s degree in business management and attained her M.B.A. from Ohio State University.  She became a Senior Certified Professional in Human Resources, working at Pratt & Whitney in Bloomfield, Connecticut for over 17 years, eventually as one of its first female Personnel Managers, and then as the Director of Human Resources at the Charlotte Housing Authority for over 18 years. Charlene worked, overall, in the human resource profession for over forty years, obtaining industry-wide recognition for her knowledge and compassionate modeling of her profession.  She frequently stated that she made it through life by “holding fast to my faith” and encouraged others she met to do the same.  She impressed many with her generosity towards others and her love of life, family, and friends.

With her husband, Charlene considered her greatest accomplishment, and her greatest gift, the raising of her sons, James III and Jordan.  She supported and shepherded her two sons, James through graduation from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Jordan through graduation from Harvard Law School.

Charlene leaves to cherish in her memories two sons James III, of Charlotte, NC, and Jordan (Jeffrey) Wall, of Brooklyn, New York; two brothers Michael (Cheryl) Powell, Julius (Shawn) Powell, both of Durham, NC; two aunts, Johnetta Billings and Julia McLaurin, both of Durham; one uncle, Henry Powell, of Durham, NC; her mother-in-law Daisy  Wall; sisters-in-law Dana Powell and Doris Grant, all of Durham, NC; ten nephews: Robert Grant, Darryl DeRadcliffe, Kenneth Thorpe, Michael Jr (Yonina), Cedric (Rochelle), LaMonte, De’Marcus, Te’Darryl, Jeremiah, and Johnathan Powell; eight nieces: Gina  Allen, Jessica and Taylor Wall, Ta’Quorya (Robert) Brown, Shenika, La’Quitta, Lena and Lola Powell; several great nieces and nephews and a host of cousins, relatives, and friends.

In addition to Psalm 121, which Char loved, she wished to leave you with a lesson from history—an excerpt from one of her favorite speeches, known as “The Man in the Arena,” delivered by President Theodore Roosevelt:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

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