McCandless, Charles S.: - Charles McCandless (1917-2001) attended Stanford University before becoming a Naval officer in the Pacific Theater. Throughout his life, he was an avid reader of history, focusing o World War II and his place in it. After the war, he completed masters degrees in engineering and economics at Stanford. He went on to build two successful businesses: a sanitary engineering firm and, later, a real estate development and construction company in the heart of what would become the Silicon Valley.