A native of Waco, TX, Charles Kincannon began his career as a statistician in the Census Bureau in 1963. He held positions of increasing responsibility at the Census Bureau until becoming chief of the program review staff in the Commerce Department's Social and Economic Statistics Administration in 1974. The following year, he joined the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he served initially as statistical liaison to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller's office.

Kincannon returned to the Census Bureau in 1981, coming on as deputy director. He became chief operating officer in 1982, continuing in that post for a decade. He served as acting director from July 1983 to March 1984 and again from January to December 1989. During the latter period, he directed final preparations for the 1990 census.

From 1992 to 2000, Kincannon held the position of chief statistician for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, an economic research organization for the world's major industrial democracies. In this role, he worked to strengthen and reform the organization's statistical work to better respond to post-Cold War needs in Europe and rapid economic integration.

He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and did postgraduate study in statistics and economics at George Washington University, Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. Kincannon died in 2012.