Charles Buckley, who died Nov. 18 at age 87, spent more than 30 years as an RTD bus driver, watching Denver neighborhoods reshape in the wake of desegregation and proud to see his daughter Vikki become Colorado’s first African-American secretary of state.
As the mulatto husband of a half- Cherokee woman, he remained keenly conscious of race and racism throughout his life. Racial duplicity repeatedly revealed itself to him. Because of his fair skin, Anglos routinely assumed Buckley was white. Nearly always, their friendliness chilled markedly when they found he was African- American.
He drummed the imperative of a good education into his children, and raised them to address their superiors with the soldierly respect instilled in him during his service in the U.S. infantry during World War II.
“He taught me that knowledge alone will allow you to stand tall anywhere,” said his son, James Buckley. “He taught me to have a great love of reading and a great love for pursuing knowledge. With that, you can know more about people than they know about themselves.”
Charles Buckley operated his bus with a stern hand. He made miscreants disembark, and watched to guarantee that everyone paid full fare. His upbringing in rural Oklahoma taught him to treat people with courtesy, and to insist upon accountability.
“He was a large man who demanded respect,” his son said. “He spoke with a thunder that made you stop in your tracks. He taught us to speak military – ‘yes, sir’ and ‘no, ma’am.’ I got my butt beat sometimes, and I learned to be the best soldier I could be. It’s been a blessing. I look at the world today and I see these rats, and I wonder why these parents don’t discipline their kids.”
Charles Buckley generally preferred animals to humans. He read insatiably. His children’s college classmates learned to avoid posturing on classic literature and history at the Buckley home, because he invariably exposed pretenders.
By 1994, when his daughter won as the underdog in the secretary of state election, Charles Buckley had retired. He took enormous satisfaction in the victory of Vikki Buckley, a onetime single mother on welfare who worked her way up from an entry-level government job.
Her abrupt death of a heart attack, five years later, devastated him. Charles Buckley still found pleasure in reading and following educational programs about wildlife, but many friends and relatives said that he never really recovered from losing his daughter.
Survivors include his wife, Ruby Buckley of Denver; son James Buckley of Los Angeles; daughter Pat Duncan of Denver; sister Betty Riley of Omaha; seven grandchildren; and 10 great- grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
