Gerlach was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on September 14, 1895. In 1914, he moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he became the organizer, and later president, of a fuel and heating supply company.[2]
A Republican State committeeman in 1936 and 1937, he was elected to the 76th Congress in 1938, and served until his 1947 death in Allentown.[3]
A newcomer to the committee. A rugged Isolationist before Pearl Harbor, who voted only for purely defensive measures, such as conscription and arming of United States ships. Though he opposed the original Lend-Lease, he favoured its continuation, but would be difficult to say exactly where he stands on the larger questions of post-war American policy.
Death
On May 5, 1947, while still serving in Congress, Gerlach died in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at age 51. He was interred in Greenwood Cemetery in Allentown.
^"Gerlach, Charles Lewis" (G000135), in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Washington, D.C.: Offices of the Historians of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, March 18, 2023.
^"Gerlach, Charles Lewis," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
^"Gerlach, Charles Lewis," in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
