Charles Mong leaves legacy in Centre County. ‘True servant of the community’

Charles “Chuck” Mong, whose past roles include director of the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County and what would become the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, died Saturday at 89 years old.

Mong played a major role in Centre County’s early tourism industry, and oversaw several projects during his time with the CBICC, including a partnership with what’s now Innovation Park at Penn State to start the business incubator, growing Penn Eagle Industrial Park, improving air service in partnership with Penn State and more.

“I’m very satisfied with what I’ve accomplished and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it,’‘ Mong said in July 1996 after announcing his retirement from CBICC, the CDT reported at the time. “The chamber is on a very solid footing and on a good course. Centre County is a thriving, exciting, evolving place ... a very good place to do business. We’re going to be just fine.’‘

After retirement, he became well known in a very different role — Santa Claus. He was one of Santa’s helpers at Nittany Mall, Logan Valley Mall and other area venues from the late ‘90s through the late 2010s.

“One of my favorite photos of my daughter that’s ever been taken was her sitting on Mr. Mong’s lap, telling Santa what she wants for Christmas,” Centre County Commissioner Steve Dershem said. “Chuck was, first of all, a very personable, charming and amazing man, but we all knew him as Santa Claus. I think that most of the people that grew up during that time likely have a photo with him too.”

Centre County leadership, politics and more

Born in Altoona in 1935, Mong attended high school in Huntingdon and joined the United States Air Force soon after he graduated, serving from 1954 to 1959.

Before making a name for himself in Centre County’s business and tourism scene, he held a number of jobs that ranged from being a cave guide at Lincoln Caverns to selling various goods across Ohio and Pennsylvania. According to his daughter Mary Anne Mong, he was always on the hunt for the next business venture, whether it be his own or someone else’s.

“My dad was like a hound dog when it came to sniffing out jobs, business ideas and other stuff like that — he just had a certain knack for it I suppose. He was always willing to help anyone, especially in a business way,” she said.

“It was his interest to step in and help people that had a business idea. He’d help them develop that idea and get it on its feet and running. There are a lot of businesses today that are still in business because they started with with one of the incubators that Dad was involved in creating.”

From 1967 to 1972, Mong served as the director of the State College Chamber of Commerce, while also concurrently picking up a job as the director of the Centre County Vacation Land Council in 1968 — an organization that would later be called the Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau, and that’s now called the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.

Through changes, Mong told the CDT in 2013 that the bureau’s mission was always the same.

”It never changed. It’s to bring tourists and tourist dollars into Centre County,” he said. “That’s the best economic dollar you can have because tourism supports nearly everything.”

According to a Town & Gown Magazine article from 1996 highlighting Mong and his accomplishments, in 1972 he launched his own business called “Organization, Management & Research,” where he provided management services to voluntary tourism promotion organizations.

Mong accepted an offer in 1977 to become an administrative aide for former state Sen. J. Doyle Corman, who represented Pennsylvania’s 34th District, which included Centre County — a position he held until briefly retiring in 1980.

Mong’s short-lived retirement ended in 1985, when he started working as the project coordinator for former U.S. Rep. William Clinger.

Mong also ran for office himself, with two unsuccessful campaigns for Centre County commissioner.

In 1989 he became the director of the Centre County Industrial Development Corporation, and then the State College Area Chamber of Commerce when the organizations merged.

“I personally feel that the chamber is just getting stronger, and much of that is due to Chuck’s contributions,’‘ former CBICC Chairman William Karch said in the 1996 CDT article about Mong’s retirement.

Mong also served two stints as the chair of the Centre County Republicans, and current chair Michelle Schellberg said the party will honor Mong’s memory by “continuing to build a community that prioritizes people over politics.”

“More than a political leader, (Mong) was a true servant of the community, embodying the values of service, unity, and goodwill,” Schellberg wrote in an email to the CDT. “His legacy is a reminder that while political involvement is important, our highest calling is to support and strengthen our community. That is exactly what we strive to do as committee members — whether as educators, youth leaders, coaches or volunteers.”

A love of singing and Santa

While work in Centre County’s business and political spheres took up much of Mong’s time, according to Mary Anne Mong, her father was made even busier with his ever-growing list of hobbies and clubs.

He was a longtime member of the State College Masonic Lodge and the United States Junior Chamber, a leadership training service organization and civic organization, and he also enjoyed hunting, fishing and traveling.

“We were always going on trips to places, he’d want to show us as much as he could,” David Mong said of his father. “He taught me how to fish and hunt too, and really turned me into a true outdoorsman, which is a way of life that I still believe in and live today.”

Sometimes his worlds collided, Mary Anne Mong said.

“We’d go on these trips with official people like Corman and Clinger, and I have to say, it was so weird seeing all of these professional, esteemed businessmen and politicians cutting back, relaxing and catching fish together,” she said. “It’s like my dad humanized them.”

Mong also had a love for singing, which led to him join the Nittany Knights Barbershop Quartet. He spent several decades performing with the local quartet and its larger chorus alongside members like Jim Decker, who remembers him for his innovative ideas and strong voice.

Mong and his wife Irene — who he was married to for 74 years before she died in December — were responsible for the quartet’s a one-of-a-kind trip to Russia, Decker said.

“Those two organized the whole thing, and it couldn’t have been a better time,” Decker said. “We were staying at people’s houses, singing in places like Moscow and St. Petersburg. ... A couple years after the trip, the Russian singers came here to perform, and we offered them housing and all that too. A lot of people from that trip have since passed away, but the friendships we made there lasted for as long as they could’ve.”

While Mong stopped singing with the quartet years ago due to his aging voice, his passion for singing stayed with him until his final months, Masonic Lodge member Bruce Grinder said.

“I visited (Mong) at his nursing home in Altoona a little while back and I remember him trying to tell me something that I couldn’t quite hear,” Grinder said. “I told him I couldn’t understand what he said, but when I did that, he just looked at (Mary Anne Mong) and said, ‘let’s sing it to him.’ Before I knew it both him and his daughter were in full song, it was incredible.”

While singing was an important part of Mong’s life, perhaps one thing he loved more than that was the role that came each winter when he donned a red suit and cap.

Because of his already-deep voice and white beard, Mary Anne Mong believes her dad was tailor-made to play Santa Claus — but the actual story of how he became the local Christmas icon is something of chance.

According to a 2019 State College Magazine article, Mong was approached by a Nittany Mall employee in a parking lot of a local restaurant soon after his retirement and asked if he’d consider being Santa Claus. He agreed, and continued for more than two decades.

In the State College Magazine article, Mong said that he believed Santa Claus to be a perfect representation of unity and kindness, and that it was always more than a job.

“When you put that suit on, for me, it transforms me. I become Santa Claus. I’m not Chuck Mong,” he told the magazine.

It was a role that suited him exceptionally well, his daughter said.

“My dad was the type of person who wanted to do his best to help everybody that he could, and in his role as Santa, I believe that he was able to do that. I never saw a kid up there that wasn’t comfortable talking with him — even when they told him about some of their not-so-easy-to-attain gifts, like wishing a parent back to life,” Mary Anne Mong said.

“He always knew what to say and do, and he always tried his hardest to be a great servant those around him — I really think that’s what he’s going to be remembered for here, for doing everything he could for his community.”