Charles Lee Hyder Jr., is a native of Huntsville AL, born September 21^st, 1961.  Charles is the son of Charles Lee Hyder Sr., and the late Eliza Jane Haygood (Parks). Charles is married to Dr. Debbie Redmond -Hyder, a practicing pediatrician in the Greater Huntsville community, and they have 3 daughters, Amira Hyder, a nuclear engineer who works and resides in Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW), Alexa and Aliecia Hyder (twins), pre-med grad students at Mississippi College in Jackson, MS., 2022 graduates of Mississippi State University.  Charles and Debbie are both 1983 graduates and supporting alumni of Alabama A&M University (AAMU), along with Amira, a 2018 graduate.

Charles graduated from AAMU with a degree in Computer Engineering, and while studying as an undergraduate, worked as an intern at Honeywell Avionics in Clearwater, Florida for 3 semester terms, working on the Space Shuttle Program Flight Control Accent Analysis team, as a junior programming engineer.  After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree at AAMU, Charles was hire on full time at Honeywell.  After 3 years, Charles transitioned for a career move in working as a senior software programmer at LTV (now Lockheed) in Dallas, TX.  After a few years, Charles transitioned to a new role as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer, which today after 32 plus years still works in the software quality engineering and development field. He is employed at Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) for 27 years, where he serves as a SAIC Quality Assurance Manager, managing the performance and career development of his employees, and serving on the contract proposal teams to review and respond to Request for Proposals (RFP), relative to SAIC bids for new or recompete contracts.

As part of the SAIC team, Charles also supports the Army’s Aircraft Survivability Equipment Project Management Office as a Lead Software Quality Engineer, a role that includes verifying that the product development requirements are met, program procedures are in place and adhered to, practices are validated, and the end product is formally tested and witnessed via verification procedures.

Outside of Charles’ professional work career, he serves and works in his community.  Charles has always had a desire and felt his purpose was to give back in appreciation for the blessings that he has received, and work in each community that he has lived within.

Charles is a founding member of the Dallas based INUNITY nonprofit organization, whose members are Black professionals in the surrounding DFW communities focused on tutoring and mentoring youth in their local schools. Charles has served on the board of directors (BOD) of Christmas Charities 2 years, Girls Inc. 4 years, Alabama’s Madison County Court Appointed Juvenile Advocates (CAJA) 4 years (3 years as Chairperson), State of Alabama’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) recent appointment, and the 100 Black Men of Greater Huntsville for 18 years. The Greater Huntsville Chapter (GHC) has on average 74 members in good standing. After his first year of chapter membership, Charles was nominated to serve on the chapter executive board, serving as chapter Secretary 5 years, Vice President (VP) of Operation 3 years, VP of Programs 3 years, VP of Development 2 years and chapter President 3 years. Charles presently serves the 100 GHC as Immediate Past President, a chapter advisor role.

Charles’ initial and past goals as a Member In Good Standing, a chapter officer and still is as a Chapter President Emeritus to be an asset to his Chapter, and to the 100 on a National level, to continue to work and serve in the community that he was reared, meet and if possible exceed the mission/expectation as a 100 Black Men of America member and use the platform of the 100 to influence change, and be a positive role model for our youth.

While serving in each GHC position, Charles had a goal to create and leave a new asset for the chapter moving forward. Serving as the chapter Secretary, Charles started the use of digital audio recording of chapter general membership and the chapter board monthly meetings. This enabled the chapter secretary to use the recording to better document meeting minutes with specifics beyond general meeting notes and archived the recording with the written monthly minutes and treasurer budget reports for future reference. As Vice President (VP) of Operation, Charles initiated and authored a major revision to chapter’s outdated by-laws to capture/document on-going chapter efforts and better define the executive officers’ responsivities. As VP of Programs, Charles met with the mentoring program/mentee parents, and encourage them to establish the still in place ‘Parents Group’ as a supporting entity to GHC’s Mentoring Program.  The Parents Group financed/helped in serving every other month lunches for the mentees after our bi-monthly group mentoring sessions, held fundraisers to help finance the mentoring program outings, and met and talk among themselves to share comments/concerns of the parents with a single voice to the mentoring program chair which was reported to the VP. This led to a better buy-in from the parents going forward.  As VP of Development Charles solicited a gentleman/educator in the community to become a member of the GHC and 100, his side effort was a small business geared towards graphics and website development. With this new member having this skill set, once he was a chapter board approved member, Charles negotiated an in-kind deal (which included waiving his chapter financial obligations, board approved) for the new member to provide the services of event flyer development, create fundraiser event promotion material and revamp and manage our GHC website. This saves the chapter thousands of dollars, and annual website management fees. As chapter President, Charles established several new partnerships deals within the community with local companies and like-kind organizations working with youth. One was the partnership with the local chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, known as ‘Team 100’. Team 100 works on several mutual community projects and solicited/started a quarterly meeting with the City Mayor and the Chief of Police (started this meet up during the Black Lives Matter movement and the pandemic height period) to discuss the concerns of the Black Community share to use via attending other community group meetings, gain insight to local business development/city growth and be an assisting voice from the Mayor’s office to the community that we both serve. One of the outcomes from this effort, the city council has recognized the 100’s GHC value and service in the community, and last year the city council included the 100 GHC to its ‘Outside Agency Appropriations’ budget, which we must reapply each year, noting our continuing efforts and services in place.

Charles’ goal is to continue to be an asset to organizations that serve their communities and be a positive advocate for the youth as they strive to reach adulthood, face life coping situations, develop their career goals and mold themselves to be contributors in their communities.