Charles "Charlie" Arnold was born and raised in 1922 in Providence, Rhode Island and served in the Navy during World War II. After his service, he attended the Rhode Island School of Design where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in illustration. After graduating in 1949 and working as a museum photographer in Manhattan for a few years, Arnold returned to the Rhode Island School of Design to teach the school's first-ever photography course. As the teaching of photography gained more popularity in the 1950s, Arnold was offered a job at the newly opened Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Subsequently, two years later, Arnold was offered a job at the School of Photography at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where he would teach for the next 31 years. One of Arnold's major achievements was his pioneering work in xerography as an art form, which he likely began experimenting with for the first time while working on his thesis in the summer of 1965. Arnold travelled extensively throughout his career, teaching and working in locations such as England, Brazil, and Spain. Arnold passed away at the age of 89 on October 11, 2011.