rise
up!
“YOU ALL HAVE
RAISED HIM
PROFESSIONALLY;
YOU REALLY
HAVE.” By Pam Baldecchi Dickson, Sister of Chuck Baldecchi
At the family home in Sherwood Forest, Maryland,
Pamela Baldecchi Dickson speaks of her youngest brother
with love and admiration and warmth. She remembers
how young Chuck was when he became the seventh
Head of The Lexington School, the summer of 2004.
With sisterly wisdom, she says, “You all have raised him
professionally; you really have.” She goes on to emphasize,
“You’ve raised that family. The first thing I want to say is
thank you to your community for doing that.”
“With that much age difference, he wasn’t just ‘the next
one.’ He was practically the star of the show.”
— Pam Baldecchi Dickson
6
The oldest of the four Baldecchi siblings, Pam gives family background,
highlighting that, from the get-go, Chuck was “the joy of everybody’s life.” The first
three sibs (Pam, Danny, and Jay) are very close in age, but there was a seven-year gap
before Chuck arrived. She underscores, “With that much age difference, he wasn’t
just ‘the next one.’ He was practically the star of the show.”
Pam continues, “The fact that he went into education is no surprise to any of us.
He often says his educational experience – the schools he went to and the teachers he
had – took care of him through a very difficult time.” Chuck, 13 when their mother
died of breast cancer, found the world of education his calling.
With Baldecchi humor that many TLSers know from Chuck, Pam laughs out loud as
she mentions, “Chuck’s got a pretty decent streak of plain old good luck. He’ll show up
at the airport, nearly miss the flight, be on standby, and then not just get on the flight
after all, but be upgraded to first class. We always kid him about those instances.”
She thinks it’s worthy to note that Chuck is moving into the high school arena
when Bella, Alex, and, soon, Cade are in that arena too. She admits, “I’ve told him
more than once that the K through 8 world is pretty nice because you avoid some of
those very tough issues of the later years. He is headed into it, both in his own life
and professionally as well, and he’s more than prepared for those challenges.”
In recalling Chuck’s teenage years, Pam points out, “I took on a not-your-typical
sister role for him then.” That early experience proved a big help to her, though,
when her own daughters entered their teens. “I always told them they could thank