Wisconsin Law Foundation presents the Charles L. Goldberg Award
to
Charles E. Hanson
La Crosse
The Wisconsin Law Foundation (WLF) Charles L. Goldberg Award
recognizes lifetime achievement of legal professionals who have a record
of service to the profession and to the public.
Charles E. Hanson has been with Hale, Skemp, Hanson, Skemp &
Sleik, in La Crosse, since 1977. He concentrates in the areas of
civil litigation, mediation, and negotiation.
“Chuck is extremely committed to the Coulee Region and has
truly made this community a better place to live by his many years of
community service,” says long-time friend and colleague Margaret
Ahne Herlitzka. “Chuck typically jumps in with both feet, he rolls
up his sleeves and works right along with the rest of the volunteers
– digging holes and hammering nails.”
Herlitzka noted the many community programs Hanson has either
chaired, organized, or run during the years, from the Kids Coulee
Project which gave the community children a place to play, to the
“Sister Cities” program which promotes the exchange of
information in the fields of medicine, government, and higher education
between La Crosse and Louyang, China; Dubna, Russia; Bantry, Ireland;
and Forde, Norway, to the Freedom Honor Flight project which coordinates
local agencies and volunteers in Western Wisconsin to honor and enable
WW II veterans to travel to Washington, D.C., to the Riverside
International Friendship Gardens, to the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra,
to participating in the production of a publication to help new parents
understand the importance of early child development.
Hanson served as a captain in the United States Air Force for four
years and was also chief of military justice at March Air Force Base as
well as the staff judge advocate for the Taipei Air Station. He is the
recipient of the Air Force Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service
Medal, and the Combined Service Forces Honorary Insignia. Hanson has
had a lifelong commitment to international peace through understanding,
a goal evidenced by his many community involvements.
Community activities and involvements. An active member of
the La Crosse Rotary Club since 1979, Hanson has initiated a number of
legacy projects, including founding the La Crosse Rotary Foundation,
Inc. in 1983, which annually provides support to a wide variety of
projects in the Greater La Crosse area. He co-chaired the 1993-1995 Kids
Coulee Playground Project that mobilized more than 3,000 community
volunteers to construct a large innovative children’s playground.
He chairs the La Crosse Kids Committee which created The Brain Game, a
book that teaches parents how to enhance early childhood brain
development. In that process, Hanson brought together key community
organizations and leaders for that book’s development and funding.
More than 20,000 copies are currently in print, and the book is
distributed at no cost to new parents at both major medical facilities
in La Crosse. He is the founder of the Riverside International
Friendship Gardens, Inc., a community-wide project to celebrate
different cultures.
He was the founder and first president of the La Crosse-Dubna
Friendship Association, which established a sister-city relationship
with the “closed” city of Dubna, Russia, in 1990 and led to
numerous programs, including the development of a university, the
creation of the Dubna Rotary Club, and innovative medical programs. He
chaired the Hands-Across-The-Heartlands Campaign that coordinated a
community effort of 5,000 volunteers who collected and prepared for
shipment 400,000 pounds of food, clothing, and medicine. This effort
provided humanitarian relief to over 12,000 needy people in Dubna,
Russia during the bitter winter of 1991 - 1992.
Hanson is also the founding president of the La Crosse-Luoyang
Friendship Association which established the sister-city relationship
with Luoyang, China in 1997. As a result of this relationship, two
Chinese teachers are now in La Crosse every year providing the core of
the Chinese language program now educating 200 high school students
annually at no cost to local taxpayers. He is also the founding
president of the sister city relationships with Bantry, Ireland and
F0rde, Norway. Hanson was the founding co-chair of the U.S. China
Council for Sister Cities International and serves as an advisor to the
mayor on the International Committee of the City of La Crosse. In
addition to his international interests, he has served as president of
Junior Achievement of the Coulee Region.
Hanson graduated with honors from U.W. Law School in
1973.
