Charles Donnell Oberdorf was born in Sunbury, Snyder County, Pennsylvania, to Don and Helen Oberdorf, née Potteiger on February 25th 1941. Oberdorf graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a BFA. Oberdorf’s first job after university was with CBS owned and operated WCAU-TV in Philadelphia for TV Ten Around Town, a local public affairs program, which set the tone for his life-long career as a writer/editor/author/producer and some-time on-air host. In 1966 Oberdorf was hired as a junior producer for the CBC’s This Hour has Seven Days show, and subsequently succeeded in carving out a distinguished career in Canada as a freelance journalist, who won numerous writing recognitions, including the U.S. Lowell Thomas Award and several Canadian National Magazine Awards. In 2008 he received the Canadian magazine industry award for “Outstanding Lifetime Achievement,” in recognition of a 30-year writing and editing career, that included the coordinating of a continuing education program comprised of 14 courses on various aspects of Magazine and Web Publishing for Ryerson University. During his freelance writing career, Oberdorf authored countless articles, edited three magazines, and published three commissioned books on the then-fledgling world of Microfinance. Oberdorf passed away on September 16th 2011.

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