Meet the Founder

Chuck Gardner, Founder

Chuck Gardner, aka “Chuck on the Truck”, has been in and around bowling for 40+ years. He is now considered a leader in the bowling industry, not only in the United States, but Internationally as well.

In 2013, the Chuck Gardner Bowl4Life Scholarship Foundation was established. The foundation was originally designed to run team travel events, over a nine month period of time, to help the youth bowlers prepare for Junior Gold.   Chuck desired to create more of a legacy with Bowl4Life and to touch a greater number of junior bowlers, throughout the United States. Therefore, the Bowl4Life mission moved in the direction of growing the sport of bowling and assisting young people in their quest of paying for college.  

In January 2007, Chuck accepted a position with Brunswick as the Southeastern Product Specialist and later became the Brunswick Pro Staff Tour Rep.  Chuck traveled on all PBA Tours and attended special events, providing coaching and technical support to the ladies, the men and the senior tours.  During this time he traveled more than 225 nights per year, coaching and educating bowlers all over the world.  

In December of 2021, Chuck and the Brands of Brunswick came to an agreement to develop the Brunswick Youth Experience.  This program starts with a blank slate for Chuck to build a youth platform.  The Brunswick Youth Experience will align with the Bowl4Life Foundation bringing memorable events to junior bowlers and providing scholarship funds for their college quest.  Chuck remains proud to represent the Brunswick family of bowling and looks forward to many more successful years with Brunswick. 

Prior to Chuck’s position with Brunswick he was the Director of Coaching and Tour Support for Columbia Industries. In this position Chuck also traveled with the National PBA Tour, in a very similar capacity as his previous position with Brunswick. He also held coaching clinics throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Chuck began his tenure with Columbia Industries in November 2001 where initially he was both a Tour Staff Player and Tour Representative. He served as the East Coast Sales Manager until May of 2005 when he accepted the Director of Coaching and Tour Support position. 

Chuck has been named by Bowlers Journal as a Top 100 Coach several times and is a Silver Level Coach with USBC. He enjoys helping people of all skill levels improve their game. He has been a PBA member for over 40 years, retiring from the National PBA Tour in November of 2002. He would welcome the opportunity to frequent the Senior PBA 50 Tour, and perhaps that may occur if he ever has a much need knee replacement. Chuck is the former Director of Pro Shop Operations for AMF Bowling and owned his own 32 lane family recreation center in Franklin, VA for about 7 years, selling the center in 1998.

In December 2019, Chuck was the proud recipient of the PBA Tony Reyes Community Service Award – This is one of the PBA’s most prestigious awards, which is presented annually to a current PBA member who does extraordinary community service, charitable and/or educational contributions over the course of a PBA Tour season. To be eligible, the nominee must be a PBA member in good standing.  At the time of Chuck receiving this award he had been a 36 year member of the PBA and continues to hold his PBA card to this day.

The community service award was first presented in 2013, a year after the PBA Tour champion died as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident near his home in northern California. Reyes, one of the PBA’s most popular players, was a former collegiate All-American bowler, an eight-time PBA Regional title winner and the 18th player in PBA history to bowl a nationally-televised 300 game.

In May of 2022, Chuck and the Bowl4Life Foundation were awarded the Alberta E Crowe Meritorious Service award by the International Bowling Media Association. 

He currently resides in Ridgeway, SC with his wife Deborah, who retired at the end of 2023 after 40 years as a Corporate Controller. They have a yellow lab, named Charlie, who is a rescue. They have a daughter, Vicki, who is an accountant for Bowling Solutions and Bowl4Life. She is married to Dylan who is an Officer in the Coast Guard. They reside in Wilmington, NC with their son Bradley and daughter Emily and golden retriever, MiMi.   Chuck & Deborah also have a son, Chuck II, who lives in Belmont, NC. Chuck II is the Operations Manager for Bowling Solutions, a family-owned small chain of bowling retail stores. Chuck II and his wife Tiffany, who is a school teacher and both very active in the Bowl4Life Foundation.  They have a son named Gavin (who loves motorcross), a daughter named Autumn, who is wrapping up her degree as an aesthetician.  They have a pit bull named Colt and a pit bull mix who was rescued from the side of a road, named Diesel.

Chuck’s idea of relaxing most recently involves stay-cations at his lakefront home. Unless Deborah can entice him to an exotic island, free of hustle, bustle, e-mail and telephones.