Charles Burrall was raised in upstate New York and graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1976 with a B.A. in English. He lived eight years in Alaska where he worked as a commercial fishing deckhand and ship’s steward in the U.S. Merchant Marine. He is a retired high school English teacher who taught for twenty-five years at Seneca Valley High School in Montgomery County, Maryland.  While in Alaska, Mr. Burrall worked on a freighter that was seized by the Soviet Union and taken captive to Siberia.  He has written a book about the experience.

Before entering his teaching career, he worked at a variety of jobs, including restaurants, construction crews, canneries, and fishing boats. He traveled widely in the United States, Mexico, Europe, and the Middle East before coming to Maryland, where he currently volunteers in the jail ministry of his church, preaching and conducting church services for inmates at the Frederick County Detention Center.