Moorestown resident Charles Ruhle will celebrate his 90th birthday in style with family and friends at the Arthur Murray Dance Center.
Ruhle started taking dancing lessons at the studio almost eight years ago, and a few of his favorite dances are the foxtrot, waltz, salsa and cha-cha, among others.
“He’s very daring,” said Susan Ruhle, Charles’ wife. “He’s not afraid to try things that he’s never tried before that are very difficult dances.”
Charles Ruhle was born in 1933 in his grandmother’s Camden home. About seven years later, his father purchased 10 acres in Mount Laurel, but Ruhle attended school in Moorestown from the age of 13.
After graduating high school, he got a job with Sherwin-Williams, a paint and coating manufacturing company, in its shipping department. Shortly after, he put in two years as a truck mechanic at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, and after that, went back to working for the paint company while attending night school.
Ruhle eventually became a chiropractor, met his first wife and had four children, who now live all over the country. He and Susan have nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Looking back, Ruhle said he loved to spend time outdoors with his dog as a kid and trap muskrats, but also touched on memories from his teenage years.
“I used to spend a lot of time with people that had farms,” he recalled. “I was on their farms and I enjoyed it, and I had a handful of really close friends through high school and we had so much fun together. As a kid, looking back, that was a good period in my life.”
The Ruhles are at the dance center multiple times a week; on Friday nights, they dance with friends they met through lessons.
“If you ever, at any point in your life, ever wondered about this stuff, and you ever thought you might want to try it, this is probably as good a place as I could ever recommend to try it,” Charles said.
He and his wife have been together for almost 42 years, and besides dancing, they love to travel locally and have a house at the Shore. They’ve traveled to destinations that include Hawaii; West Palm Beach and Lake Placid in Florida; and Savannah, Georgia.
Charles’ birthday celebration will be a big family reunion.
“Don’t be afraid to meet people, don’t be afraid to talk to people,’’ he advised about life. “You may be surprised that you find that you really could like them, or you may find that you could hate them, but you won’t know who you like unless you try.”
