March 31, 1933 – July 26, 2015
Charles, Bernard, Bea, Charles Jr., Helen
Charles W. Bartholow, Jr., coffee-drinker, varmint-hater,
suspender-wearer died Sunday July 26, 2015 at the VA Hospital’s Palliative Care
Unit in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Know by many names, Chuck/Chucky B./Chas/Chief, Charles
lived more life in 82 years than most people could live in three
lifetimes. He was a veteran of the
Korean War Era, had mingled with some of the most influential people in the
military world, and contributed to the building of the Lunar Module, but none
of those things were what made him proud. Building his homestead from nothing into a
very unique something, figuring out a formula to compute square root by
longhand, and catching that possum or coon or snake that had been pillaging his
barn made his mouth, covered with his signature white mustache, curl up in a
smile.
Those who knew Chuck will remember the little man with a big
personality, driving his little white truck to and from service calls to fix a
washer or dryer. Those who knew Chuck
well will remember the man who loved to talk for hours, share stories of his
life, and used almost any circumstance to teach a useful lesson. To all of us, we will remember him as one of
the smartest men we’ve ever known.
Survivors include his sister, Bea Johnson of Washington, IA,
brother, Bernard Bartholow and wife Judy of Muscatine, IA, son, Charles T.
Bartholow and wife Linda of Jefferson, IA, daughter, Carla Collins of
Bartlesville, OK, two granddaughters, Celina Johnson and Krisann Draman, and
three great-grandchildren, Jade, Spencer, and Zoey.
There will be no services, per Chuck’s request that upon his
death, we all “get back to work”.
Obituary by Celina Johnson
4 comments:
What wonderful tribute for this man! Makes me wish I had known him!
He kept a flock of fighting chickens for eggs and meat, and they kept the ticks out of his yard/barnyard. He kept goats, too, and he could kill a coyote at a quarter mile with his .243. He was an electronics expert in his day and did a lot of work with radar in the late fifties and early sixties. He spent a lot of time in Germany and the Far East. He used relays to turn on the lights in his outbuildings, and that saved a lot of wiring. I never did understand how it worked, but the neighbors liked it and he fixed them up, too. He and Mom would talk on the phone every Sunday night. He told us to never throw out an ironing board. They make great little tables that you can move to wherever you are working on a project.
He sounds like a heck of a man. I wish I could have met him.
I admire a man with an active mind, that saw a problem in search of a solution. Then made it happen. I'm sorry for your and your mom's loss.
I too, would like to have known him.
Post a Comment