Charles Calvin Chase was the 10th of 11 children of Susan Catherine (Borders) Chase and George Portland Chase. He was born on August 27, 1906 on his parents farm in Chippewa County, Minnesota, which was located just a couple miles south of the town of Kerkhoven in Swift County, Minnesota. His father had moved the family there in 1903, on the prospect of good farming, which did not prove out so well. (Charles' elder brother, Elijah Allen Chase, was also born there on that same farm in 1904.) About 1908, his family returned to Iowa for better farming opportunities once again. Charles' family did move several more times over the years, but remained in Iowa.

Charles displayed an exceptional talent for playing the violin as a youth, and in the later 1920's and early 1930's, Charles worked on and earned his degree in teaching music at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa.

Then in 1933, he married Edith Wilhelmina Van Peursem in Maurice, Sioux County, Iowa. Several years later, around 1942, Charles and Edith moved to the Los Angeles California area, where they established new roots by moving into their home in Altadena, near Pasadena, and raised their two daughters.

When Charles was growing up, his family would frequently move (about every few years) from one farm to another farm. However, once Charles and Edith moved to Altadena, they remained in that same home for nearly 40 years, until Charles passed away 1980.

Charles was very much loved by his family, and well respected by his friends and neighbors, and as a music professor in the Pasadena School district, he was appreciated for his many years of dedication, not only to his students, but to the school district as well, having served on the School Board of Directors for several years. In his spare time he enjoyed a labor of love in landscaping, for his own estate, and some neighbors.

He and his wife Edith enjoyed music together their whole lives, and shared their love of music with others through teaching and performing. Charles had the rare combination of strength and skillfulness in the mastery of music. Having been raised on a farm, Charles was strong, and not afraid of hard work, while also able to enjoy and practice the fine arts of creating musical instruments in addition to teaching and conducting music. He had even built his very own harpsichord and piano, by hand, beautiful instruments finely crafted, and finely tuned works of art.

Charles was a dedicated, well-rounded, kind and caring man, of strong values, personal integrity, and a genuine love for all the riches life had to offer.