Charles G. Beaudette (1930-2020) was born in 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Joseph and Ruth Gallagher Beaudette. He obtained a BS in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1952. While a student at MIT, Beaudette served as managing editor of The Tech, the official student newspaper. After graduation, Beaudette joined the United States Air Force, serving as a lieutenant in the Korean War; during his service, he taught radar operations. After leaving the military, Beaudette founded Dychro Corporation in 1958; in 1961, he sold it. Between 1963 and 1973, Beaudette worked as a senior engineer at EG and G Corporation in Wellesley, Massachusetts. During this time, he was involved in the invention of the office facsimile, or fax machine, registering two patents on image compression.

In 1973, Beaudette and his family moved to Maine. During this time, Beaudette workeda s a consulting engineer and market analyst. He retired in 1987, after which he spent his time writing; in 1989, he became interested in cold fusion, a topic that he wrote many articles about. In 2000, after a decade of research, Beaudette published the first edition of Excess Heat: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed. In 2012, Beaudette published of The Dark Side of Leadership: A cautionary Fable for Those who Serve as Trustees or Directors on Not-for-Profit Boards. Charles Beaudette died on August 9, 2020.