Chuck Hampton may be 73, but he exudes the pep and verve of a TV aerobics instructor and the perpetual delight of someone to whom every glass appears half full. He has almost 4,000 friends on Facebook; some call him “the mayor of Brown.”
As the welcome center specialist for Brown Athletics, Hampton has spent the past 17 years sharing his irrepressible joie de vivre with generations of Olney Margolies Athletic Center visitors—coaches, students, alumni, parents, donors, even kids attending summer sports camp.
“This is my comfort zone,” he says, his gaze sweeping across Ittleson Quad. “If I was a millionaire, I’d still come to work for free.”
Gastroenterologist Colleen Kelly, MD, an associate professor of medicine, is a longtime OMAC habitué. A member of a running club that includes a few other Brown docs, she looked forward to Hampton’s warm, garrulous greeting when she arrived for early-morning indoor practice. She missed him, even worried about him during the COVID-19 lockdown. In November 2021, returning to the track for the first time in a year and a half, she was so happy to see him she teared up and gave him a hug.