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Carlos Francisco "Charley" Mena was born in San Jose, Costa Rica on 29 September 1929 and was appointed to West Point as a foreign cadet.

His West Point classmates recall: "After spending most of his life in Central America Charley came to the US in 1941 and went to grammar school in Hackensack, N. J., his adopted home state. Later he went to Loyola School in N.Y. and spent two years there. He returned to beautiful Costa Rica in 1945 and graduated from high school and before he had ended his first term of civil engineering he received his appointment to USMA."

During his cadet days Carlos went out for Boxing plebe year; for Soccer plebe, yearling, and cow years; was with the Art Club yearling year; with the Weight Lifting Club cow and first class years; and was a Cadet Sergeant his first class year.

Carlos received a Certificate of Completion on graduation day and is not an official graduate, albeit our most active Associate Classmate.

In 1955 Carlos obtained a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from The Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, N.Y. He worked in New York City as design engineer for TAMS, Hydrotechnic Corporation, and senior engineer for Bechtel. In 1970 he was appointed as Power Engineer for the Inter-American Development Bank in Brazil and Washington, D.C., a position he held until 1973. In 1973 Carlos was appointed as Power Engineer with the World Bank and served as such until 1974 when he was appointed Project Officer. Then in 1979 Carlos was appointed a Senior Power Engineer at the Bank where he retired in 1987. Since retirement from the Bank Carlos has established his own Company and serves as President of Mena Enterprises, Inc. He closed his company in 2006 for full retirement.

Carlos and his wife Cecilia make their home in Bethesda, Maryland.

The May 1995 Assembly reports; "Carlos Mena had quadruple bypass surgery in October and is doing well."

Left to right - Son Carlos Jr, daughter Gloria, Cecelia and Carlos

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