![Charles E. Balbach](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=150%2C200 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=200%2C267 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=225%2C300 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=300%2C400 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=400%2C533 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=540%2C720 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=640%2C854 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=750%2C1000 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=990%2C1320 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C1380 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1600 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/buffalonews.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/dd/5ddadc20-2866-11ef-b5f0-b34556e8eb64/66690cf667cfc.image.jpg 1333w)
Charles E. Balbach had great success building a multimillion-dollar company. In retirement, he made even more of an impact as a forward-thinking civic leader and philanthropist.
He made major contributions to the development of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Nichols School and Kaleida Health as chairman of their boards. He died May 23 in his Orchard Park home after a period of declining health. He was 89.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, the older of two boys, he was the son of Carl L. and Ruth Balbach. His father, an engineer with the Delco Products Division of General Motors in Dayton, was promoted to plant manager of Delco's factory appliance division in Rochester in 1955.
He earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1956 and completed a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School in 1960.
He began his career on the financial staff at General Motors in Detroit, where he met his future business partner, Paul F. Eckel. When Eckel went to Moog Servocontrols in Elma in 1961, he recruited Mr. Balbach as supervisor of the accounting department. He went on to become manager of value engineering and assistant to president William C. Moog.
He was married in 1964 to Margaret "Peggy" Crofton of Rochester, a friend of his brother’s wife, and they made a home in Orchard Park.
In 1966, he and Eckel purchased Science Kit, a small Town of Tonawanda company that provided supplies for high school science labs. The first company to receive economic assistance from the Erie County Industrial Development Authority, it acquired companies in Toronto, Rochester and Chicago, becoming a major distributor of science teaching items throughout the U.S. He and Eckel stepped aside from daily operations in the mid-1980s, continuing as owners until 1998.
Mr. Balbach began collecting contemporary art in the 1960s and developed a vast expertise. He was elected to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Members Advisory Council in 1967 and joined the board of directors of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, the museum's parent organization, in 1987. He became board president in 1996 after the death of Seymour H. Knox III.
He co-chaired the fundraising campaign in the 1990s that brought modern heating, air conditioning and humidity control to the galleries. He helped develop the long-term strategic plan that led to the major expansion of the museum and served on the committee that chose the architect.
As a member of the Art Committee, he also was deeply involved in the purchase of new works for the collection. When he stepped down from the board in 2002, longtime museum director Douglas G. Schultz hailed him as a visionary who "has left his imprint in every corner of the museum."
He returned to the board from 2006 to 2016 and at the time of his death was an honorary member. The position of chief curator at the museum is dedicated in his name.
At Nichols School, he became chairman of the board of trustees in 1989 and was a leader in the fundraising drive to build the Flickinger Performing Arts Center in the mid-1990s. The school's collection of student art is named in his honor and an annual student art prize is given in his name.
As a chairman of the board of Buffalo General Health System, parent of then-Buffalo General Hospital, he was one of the architects of the merger that brought Buffalo General, the Millard Fillmore hospitals and the current Oishei Children's Hospital together to create Kaleida Health in 1999. He headed the committee that chose the name.
He also remained active with his alma mater. “He felt Harvard was a central part of his success,” his daughter, Melissa T. Balbach, said.
When the Harvard Business School Club of Buffalo started an executive training program in the 1960s, the first in the nation, he was chairman. He was involved in Harvard fundraising campaigns and was a longtime member of the Committee on University Resources.
He was an officer of Buffalo's Harvard Club and president of its successor, the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Western New York, which named him Alumnus of the Year in 1998.
He and his wife were honored by the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County as 1997 de Tocqueville Philanthropists of the Year.
A longtime Orchard Park Presbyterian Church member, he was chairman of the Presbyterian Homes of Western New York and a life member of the Salvation Army Buffalo Area Services advisory board. He also was a member of the Saturn Club and the Thursday Club.
He was a former chairman of the Aspen, Colo., Art Museum, a council member of the Whitney Museum of American Art National Committee and a board member of the Shaw Festival.
An avid fisherman, he traveled to Canada and the West to fish with a group of friends for 60 years. He also spent vacations at a rustic family cottage on a lake in Maniwaki, Quebec, north of Ottawa.
His wife, a longtime Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra board member and devoted supporter of the arts, died in 2002. He later was married for several years to Carol Heckman, an attorney and U.S. magistrate judge.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include his son, C. Teo; his brother, Karl; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service was held June 1 in Westminster Presbyterian Church, 724 Delaware Ave.