Charles O. Sell

1931—2008

Only once in a great while does a person come along who touches your life in such a way that you know they have changed you and made you better for having known them.

Charlie Sell was one of those rare people and his death is felt by many people across the entire area.  He will be missed in so many ways.

Charlie quite freely admitted that he never thought much about history until one day in about 1994 when he came to ACHS looking for photographs of past Legion Commanders from Anoka.  The staff pulled out the photograph index and inventory, handed them to Charlie with an explanation of how to find what he wanted, and that was it.  Charlie was hooked.

The photograph collection was Charlie’s special love and he dedicated hundreds upon hundreds of hours to the collection.  It was with Charlie’s influence that a grant was written to begin the labor intensive project of cataloging the thousands of photos in ACHS’s collection into a computer database.  His dream was to be able to enter what a person wanted into the computer and it would respond with a list of photos matching the search, then show that photo on the screen.

As time went by, the photo project continued to the point where patrons can search the ACHS photo collection on the computer.  There are many photos yet to be entered, but Charlie used the system to find photos for patrons and staff on a routine basis. 

Charlie was tireless in his quest for accurate history and he spent many days entering additional information about photos beyond what had initially been known.  He often knew the information personally and had the resources to verify it.  Staff members at ACHS often teased Charlie, saying that if he told them it rained half an inch on the 12th of September in 1957, we would believe him without question because if we took the time to look it up, we’d find he was right.

One thing about Charlie that drove the staff a little crazy was his volunteer hours.  He was good about writing them down until the year he was recognized as one of the top volunteers.  After that, he wouldn’t write down all of his hours because he wanted someone else to get that recognition.  Charlie would have been in the top five every year.

The love of “old photos” went beyond just ACHS.  Charlie began doing a “Then and Now” look at the city of Anoka.  He hunted for photos from the 1940s and 50s, writing every bit of history he could gather about the subject and putting it into a notebook that grew thicker by the week.  The next step was to go out to the same location as the old photo and take another photo of the same thing today and write up its history.  Charlie kept saying he had to work on it to get it finished, but in the next breath, he’d tell us it would never be done as he was off talking to someone else about yet another old photo of something in Anoka.  ACHS has a copy of that notebook and it is a phenomenal resource—just not as good as having Charlie.

That was how we got to know Charlie, but his friendship went far beyond the work he did.  Charlie was a     sounding board for ideas, a resource for where to find information, someone to just talk to about anything, historical or personal.  He was an excellent listener and had a rich sense humor with an infectious laugh.  He was also an exceptional story teller—if only we had written down all the stories he told us!

One of the highlights of the last years was his work with the Calendar Kids from Fred Moore Middle School.  Charlie guided the students through the process of writing the history and choosing photos for the yearly Anoka city     calendar.  When it was done, he’d take the kids to Billy’s for hamburgers, then they’d walk to City Hall to present the   calendar.  The kids loved him and he loved them.

Charlie was so many things to so many people in the community.  He served on the city council, was elected the mayor on a write-in campaign, was the commander of the Anoka American Legion Post, served on countless city        commissions and committees, and an active community member.  Charlie took part in the community, appearing before councils and boards to accomplish something in the community where he lived his entire life.  He was a born Anokan, and proud of it. 

ACHS director Todd Mahon said, “This guy was beloved, revered.  Charlie is like that guy from that town that seems fictional.  He's perfect.  He's the town ambassador.  He's the town historian.  He's everything."

Most of all, he was a dear friend who will be missed terribly by the staff at ACHS for many years to come.