Obituary for: Charles E. Marion

Charles E. Marion
(1932 – 2019)

 
Charles Edmund Marion of Tucson, Arizona died peacefully amongst his family, shortly after celebrating a lovely Thanksgiving with his wife Barbara and daughter Linda. Known to friends as Chuck, he was a loving and fun husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather, talented at working with his hands making beautiful jewelry and fixing just about anything. In his extensive travels across the United States, he made countless friends from all walks of life, took in some of nature’s most beautiful sights, and collected enough tall tales to regale and entertain his family for a lifetime and then some.
 
Born on May 7, 1932, Chuck and his brother Walter Junior, children of Walter and Emily Marion, grew up in Streator, Illinois. Chuck was inspired by Walter Sr., a chef, to learn the art of butchery as a teenager, and he never lost the ability to identify a good cut of meat. However, after graduating from Calumet High School in 1950, he joined the Air Force.
 
Stationed at Cape Canaveral, in what he fondly referred to as Florida’s Banana Belt due to his lifelong love for warm weather, he was assigned to Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands for one year. There, he was present for the test of the world’s first hydrogen bomb, Ivy Mike, which was detonated in 1952 and led to a U.S. advantage in the cold war with the Soviet Union, an experience Chuck remembered vividly all his life.
 
After finishing service in 1953, life brought him back to Chicago. Charles Marion married his high school sweetheart Laura Jones, and their first child Linda was born in Mount Prospect, Illinois in 1954, shortly followed by Mark, Kathleen, Michael, Nancy, and Susan. The six Marion children inherited both parents’ joie de vivre and good looks and were easily recognized for both by teachers and neighbors both in Illinois and later in La Habra, California. While Chuck and Laura’s marriage did not endure, they loved and were adored by the large clan of kids and grandkids that came along.
 
Intelligent and curious, Chuck loved computers and machinery. He first worked in the bookbinding and printing business, for the Sheridan company in Illinois, where he honed his expertise in mechanics. Chuck was often the first to get his hands on new gadgets and delighted in showing them off to his family over the years.
 
In September 1975, Chuck met Barbara Marion (Slater), at a mutual friends’ party in Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes California. Charles was immediately smitten while Barbara initially thought Chuck a bit of a joker but soon recognized his loving spirit. Charles and Barbara were married on Christmas Eve in 1977, on Barbara’s mother’s birthday. The hostess of the party at which they first met served as matron of honor. They have remained one another’s constant and loving companion for the last 42 years.
 
Ever the entrepreneur, Chuck focused on growing his business efforts with his lifelong friend Bill Meier, with whom he had been working in Los Angeles from 1969 to 1982, building their company Dependable Binding and Folding. Before embarking on a large business venture, Barbara noticed a motor home for sale in the paper. Chuck brought it home that day, and so began their life on the road. Their first trip was to Chicago, where they traveled with Barbara’s son Davin, and celebrated his 15 ^th birthday at Colorado’s Garden of the Gods and saw Yellowstone National Park along the way.
 
In 1982, Chuck and Barbara moved to San Francisco, where they polished the stones she collected on the beach in a rock tumbler and admired beautiful pieces at gem shows. They began learning how to make jewelry, and within a week he was an expert. Very mechanically and artistically inclined, Chuck made countless pieces of jewelry over the years and gifted his family and friends with his handiwork. He was particularly proud of his opals, which his daughters and granddaughters wear to this day. As he and Barbara never forgot a birthday, granddaughters often also received rings, earrings and necklaces adorned with their birthstone.
 
After moving to Brea, California, and participating in the first of their famous gem shows in 1985, Barbara and Chuck began taking the motor home to others on weekends, selling jewelry and figurines, bringing lucky grandkids along. They began traveling full time in 1986. They drove across the country, visiting family, seeing national parks, and keeping each other company. They owned three motor homes, but the Beaver was Chuck’s favorite. Kids were hosted for sleepovers during visits, where Chuck helped his grandsons hone their skills in checkers and showed off his collectibles.
 
Their last gem show was in 2008 in Tucson, where they settled down permanently and he spent the last years of his life. Chuck loved the warmth and sunshine, and the tall cactuses, all of which he liked to boast about to family and friends who lived elsewhere.
 
Chuck is survived by his wife, six children, and their spouses: Linda and Daniel Marsh, Mark and Tina Marion, Kathleen and Andrew Tow, Michael and Janice Marion, Nancy and Steve Bray, and Susan and Guy Speers, Davin, Dana and Sandy, and Dean Slater, his cousin Mary Meadows, twenty-six grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.