Laborer, Laclede Steel Company, Saint Louis, c. 1921; Draftsman, Trueblood and Graf, Architects, Saint Louis, MO, 1925-1927; Partner, [Charles] Gray and Eames, Architects, Saint Louis, MO, 1930-1936; Partner, Eames, Gray and [Walter] Pauley, Architects, Saint Louis, MO, -1938;

American Institute of Architects (AIA), Twenty-five Year Award, 1977; Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Gold Medal, 1979 (awarded posthumously); named the "The Most Influential Designer of the 20th Century" by International Designers Society of America (IDSA), 1985;

Coursework, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO, 1924 to 1926; architectural coursework, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI, 1938-

By the time he was 14 years old, while attending high school, Charles worked at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer, where he learned about engineering, drawing, and architecture (and also first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect).

Charles O. Eames, Sr., (1849-1921) married Celine A. Lambert on 05/28/1901 at the then brand-new 1st Christian Church of Kinmundy, IL. (See Pat Kirkham, Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century, [Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995], p. 407. See also "Kinmundy Christian Church, Kinmundy, Illinois,"Accessed 06/15/2011.) His father was the elder brother of William Sylvester Eames (1857-1915), partner in the prominent Saint Louis, Mo, architectural firm of Eames and Young (formed 1885). Eames and Young had a practice that transcended the Saint Louis region; they designed two buildings in Seattle, WA--the Alaska Building, Pioneer Square, (1903-1904) and the Josephinum Building, Belltown, (1908)--and one in San Francisco, CA, the United States Government, Department of the Treasury, Customs House #2 (1906-1911).

In 1929, Charles Eames wed Catherine Woermann; they divorced in 1941; he married Bernice Alexandra (nicknamed "Ray") Kaiser (1912-1988), also in 1941.

Charles Eames had one child, Lucia (born 1930 in Saint Louis, MO), with Catherine Woermann Eames.