Charles Sterling Deehr was born in Kalamazoo Michigan USA in 1936.  He received a BA degree in physics from Reed College in 1958 and an MS and PhD in geophysics from the University of Alaska in 1961 and 1968.  He married Tone Treider in Oslo in 1960 and they have four daughters.  He has worked at the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska for 50 years, starting as a student in the International Geophysical Year and ending as a professor emeritus in the 4th International Polar Year.  During that time, he was active in the establishment of the CEDAR and GEM programs of the National Science Foundation, and the upgrade of the Poker Flat Research Range.  He spent a number of years as a visiting scientist at the Physics Institute of the University of Oslo and at UNIS on Svalbard.  His research interests include spectrophotometric studies of atmospheric emissions, mainly associated with the dayside and nightside aurora and polar airglow as signatures of the coupling between the solar wind and the ionosphere.  He produces the auroral forecast and the auroral alert as a part of his participation in the Geophysical Institute's space weather research program.  Dr. Deehr is a member of the American Geophysical Union and he received the Nansen Medal from the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in 1985.