Charles "C.B." Beaumont Whiting —The sole male heir of the Whiting family, which ran Empire Falls from the factories up. Both his father and grandfather had had shrewd business sense, short stature, and thoughts of killing their wives - all qualities that C.B. has inherited. When he was young, he moved to Mexico, and dreamed of being an artist or poet. His father called him back to Empire Falls, where he took up the family business as well as an unhappy marriage to Francine Whiting. Generally unhappy, C.B. killed himself roughly 20 years before the time the book takes place.