Charles Champlin was born on April 3, 1935, in St. Paul, Minnesota, the older of the two sons of Smith Lyman and Noreene Maria Kirey Champlin. His brother, Michael, also became a Dominican priest. He completed elementary education at St. Columba and Nativity Catholic Schools in St. Paul, from 1940 to 1948, and attended Cretin Military Academy in St. Paul, graduating in 1953. In 1954 to 1955, he attended Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.

On August 30, 1955, Charles Carson Champlin received the Dominican habit and his religious name of Fabian at St. Peter Martyr Priory and Novitiate in Winona, Minnesota. He made first profession there on August 31, 1956, then moved to the Dominican House of Studies, River Forest, Illinois, for his studies in philosophy, receiving a B.A. degree in 1959. He then moved to St. Rose Priory in Dubuque, Iowa, to continue studies in theology. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 2, 1962, by Archbishop James J. Byrne in the St. Rose Priory Chapel in Dubuque.

Father Champlin's first assignment was as associate pastor at Nativity Parish in Campti, Louisiana, during the summer of 1962. In October of that year, he moved to Malumfashi, Nigeria, where he served as associate pastor and instructor at the catechetical centre of St. Vincent Ferrer Church until 1972. During his first home leave, he attended the University of Minnesota and Duquesne University to study anthropology, and upon his return to Nigeria continued anthropological and ethnological research in northern Nigeria. He became proficient in the Hausa language and eventually served as translator for the Hausa Liturgical Commission.

On a home leave in 1970, Father Carson engaged in small-group retreat work with his brother, now Father Michael Champlin. Upon his return to the United States in 1972, the brothers became full-time preachers and joined the Dominican Evangelical Preaching Team based first in Denver, Colorado, and later in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 1977, he joined his brother to establish the Thomas More Center for Preaching and Prayer in the Diocese of Superior at Webster, Wisconsin, with assignment to Holy Rosary Priory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Center was formed for the purpose of providing a training program for those preparing for the ministry of preaching and an opportunity for renewal and continuing education for those actively engaged in preaching. During this time, they continued as full-time preachers and their ministry led them throughout the central and western United States as well as to Australia for frequent three-month periods spent in preaching spiritual renewal programs in parishes there.

In early 1987, Carson was diagnosed as having multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer which attacks white blood cells found in the bone marrow. He underwent chemotherapy several times over the next years, was hospitalized at times, but during periods of remission continued in the preaching ministry. In spite of all efforts to alleviate his condition, Carson Champlin died on October 7, the feast of the Holy Rosary. Following the funeral Mass at Holy Rosary Priory in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on October 10, he was buried in the Dominican plot at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Minneapolis.