By Tim Carlisle
former NPC Executive Director and Northside News founding editor
The Northside community lost a long-time champion with Char Tortorice’s recent passing, and many of us lost a wonderful neighbor and dear friend. I can speak about both those losses, and about Char’s over 30 years of contributions to the Northside.
Char and husband Dan moved to the Northside in 1990, at a time when the Northside was considered both a sleepy “suburb” of Madison, and an area on the forefront of change as Madison struggled with some of the challenges of becoming a more urban city.
I don’t know if Dan knew it at the time, but in the coming years their home would become the scene of many neighborhood meetings, as well as an always welcoming gathering place for friends, neighbors, and fellow Northside activists.
Char quickly immersed herself in Northside issues and activities, becoming involved in the planning process for the City’s first neighborhood plan for the Northside (1991-92), and then joining and serving as the co-chair of the newly formed Northside Planning Council (NPC) in 1993.
Under Char’s leadership, NPC began working on its first major project – the creation of the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, a years-long community-led process of planning, fundraising, and advocacy that culminated in the Center’s construction in 1999.
Char’s involvement with NPC and Northside issues continued over the next three decades. Char was a strong supporter of the Northside News, the expansion of Lakeview Library, the development of the Troy Gardens project, and advocate for Northside neighborhood centers and schools. In addition to her long involvement with NPC, Char was actively involved in her own Lake View neighborhood association and the Friends of Lake View Hill.
All of this whirlwind of Northside community involvement came on top of Char’s “day job” as a UW academic staff and campus leader. And of course, on top of Char’s most treasured job – as loving mother, and later grandmother.
When we offer tributes to people who have played an important role in our community, it sometimes sounds like the honoree did it all alone. While Char played important roles in advancing many Northside projects, Char understood that community involvement, and leadership, is inherently a group activity – no one leader, no matter how skilled, and no one voice, no matter how loud, can succeed without the contributions and voices of many others.
Though often one of the smartest people in any room and an excellent public speaker, Char encouraged the voices and involvement of others who were less comfortable or less experienced in community activities.
Char generously shared her considerable network of personal and professional relationships on campus and with City officials, opening doors for NPC to advocate and fundraise for Northside projects like Warner Park Center.
Char also led and contributed through her own “roll up your sleeves” example – frequently hosting meetings at her home, giving neighbors rides to meetings, showing up for and helping clean up after community events, stuffing envelopes for mailings – and by telling anyone who would listen what a great place the Northside was to live.
And Char found ways to involve her own family in the Northside – she and daughter Angie helped form the Northside Youth Council to get younger Northsiders involved in our community. Char encouraged her husband Dan to start writing for the Northside News, which he continues to this day. The love and support of Char’s family – and her friends and fellow NPC members – was no doubt critical to her many years of community involvement.
Over my own now 30 plus years as a Northsider, it has been my great privilege to personally experience Char’s mentoring, support, and friendship.
Char’s enthusiastic love of the Northside was apparent from her first phone call to me – helping sell me on moving across the country to become the only staff of the still-fledgling Northside Planning Council in 1994. After my arrival, Char’s generous welcome to the Northside included providing me with home-cooked meals, introductions to other Northsiders, and even an offer to stay in her home while I found my own Northside home.
In the first photo of the Northside Planning Council members, published in the Northside News that Char encouraged us to start, Char can be seen standing behind a younger me, with her hand on my shoulder.
Over the next three decades, including my own years of involvement with NPC and other community organizing efforts, Char continued to always have my back, as well as the backs of many of her neighbors and fellow Northsiders.
Char’s steadfast support for the Northside, her tireless contributions, and her guiding hand on many of our shoulders, serve as a shining example of what it means to be a friend, neighbor, and proud Northsider. May we all strive to follow in her footsteps to make our Northside community a better place for all who call it home.
