After 23 years of distinguished service as Professor of Flute at Florida State University, Charles O. DeLaney retired from full-time teaching at the end of the 1999-2000 school year.

Charlie came to FSU in 1976. Prior to coming to FSU, he taught for 25 years at the University of Illinois -- Champaign-Urbana. A native of North Carolina, he holds degrees from Davidson College (B.S. in Psychology and Education), the Conservatory of Lausanne, Switzerland (Virtuosity in Flute), and The University of Colorado (M.M. in Flute and Composition). His major teachers were Lamar Stringfield, Rex Elton Fair, Edmund Defrancesco, Alfred Fenboque, and Marcel Moyse.

Rising to international prominence through his accomplishments as a performer, teacher, composer, recording artist, conductor, and clinician, Charlie may be even better known for his irrepressible humor and lively story-telling. Since coming to Tallahassee, he has been Principal Flutist and a founding member of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Albany (GA) Symphony (1979-88), President of the National Flute Association (1986-87), founding member of the Florida Flute Association, and was a member of the NFA Cultural Exchange Delegation to China. He has published a number of compositions including " ' and the Strange Unknown Flowers " for solo flute and Variations on an English Folksong for Alto Flute . In 1998 DeLaney was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Flute Association. His recordings of contest pieces for flute, released by the Selmer Company during the 1960's, were the first recordings of that literature and have inspired countless flutists since. He has influenced eminent musicians all over the world and, among the hundreds of students he has taught, many now hold some of the most prestigious professional positions in music.

In addition to these impressive credentials, he is one of the nicest people anyone could hope to meet. The kindness, generosity, and devotion to music that he displays to his students and to the FSU community has served as a model for a generation.