Chuck Hill was born in Youngstown on September 14, 1923, a son of the late Harold J. and Cleora G. (Farmer) Hill. He graduated from South High School in 1941 and entered the U.S. Army Air Force in February 1943. While state-side he attended Armorer school at MacDill Field, Florida and later was enrolled in the Army ASTP program at Randolph Macon College in Virginia. He served in the 586th B-26 Bomb Squadron, 397th Bomb Group, and was deployed to France in 1945 with the 1259th Combat Engineer Battalion, Weapons NCO. After the war Chuck enrolled for a year in an aeronautical engineering program at Cal Aero Tech Institute in California. Upon return to Youngstown he embarked upon a lifelong career in the heavy steel mill equipment manufacturing industry where he was involved with basic steel strip processing and served in the roles of purchasing agent, sales engineer and press estimator.