Charles R. Sanders

Charles R. “Chuck” Sanders, 67, of Onalaska, died at his home on Thursday, February 5, 2015.

He was born in Scotts Bluff, Neb., on February 27, 1947, to Edward and Vera (Russell) Sanders and was raised, mostly, in La Crosse. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1964 prior to graduating from Central High School in 1965. He then served in Vietnam as a Navy corpsman with 1st Force Recon, which was attached to the 1st Marine Division. He was honorably discharged from active duty in 1967, but later reenlisted and served in the Navy Reserves to the rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer. He was a member of the La Crosse Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America and served as its President.

Chuck married the former Joyce Thornton on June 21, 1969, at Wesley United Methodist Church in La Crosse. He majored in Psychology while attending Viterbo College. He worked as an audiology technician at Gundersen-Lutheran Medical Center from 1980 until his retirement in 2000.

Chuck had an unassuming quiet nature with a true consideration for the welfare of others. Somewhere in the world there is a man who is alive because a complete stranger sprinted across a restaurant and saved him from choking. Somewhere there is a motorcyclist who lives because a stranger, with no mind to his own safety, ran to a crash scene in the middle of a busy highway to administer lifesaving care. There were many who came home alive from a little faraway country because of the courage and skills of their navy hospital corpsman. Veterans who didn’t even know Chuck lovingly called him Doc. At age 19 he volunteered to go into an unpopular war because he loved his country and wanted to help people. He would have traded his own life if it could have brought home even one of the soldiers who are still missing, or exchange his name with another on The Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.

Chuck had a short resume. He struggled to earn an education because of a war that was still in his head. He found help in many ways at Viterbo College in La Crosse. He had an abbreviated career, 20 years in a job that he loved at Gundersen Clinic that was cut short by a hemorrhagic stroke in 2000. He lived 15 years with serious impairment of his mobility and skills including loss of language. He lived every day uncomplainingly with gratitude for all those who helped him in meaningful ways they may never know. These include the doctors at Gundersen and the VA, the members of YMCA North who befriended him and encouraged him and all of his therapists, friends, neighbors and family. With their help he kept a positive, vibrant outlook even through his last years.

The patriotic values and courage by which Chuck lived inspired both his daughter, Tanya, and grandson, Dylan, to pursue military careers and their accomplishments were a source of great joy for him. He had a love of nature and all things within it. He was, also, an astute amateur astronomer who could be fully at home in the middle of a cloudless night staring up at the starry sky. Chuck understood the vastness of time and space, how precious and fragile we all are and that life could be lived and could end in a second. He will be sorely missed and deeply mourned.

Chuck is survived by his wife and best friend, Joyce; his daughter, Tanya, and her husband, Daniel Testa, of Sahuarita, Ariz.; and his grandson, Dylan Owens, and his wife, Alyson, of San Diego, Cal., where he is serving in the U.S. Marine Corps. His parents preceded him in death.

A memorial service celebrating Chuck’s life will be held Thursday, February 12th at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 111 9th Street N. in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Father Patrick Augustine will officiate. A reception and gathering for family and friends will follow in the church fellowship hall. His urn will be entombed, with military honors, at Oak Grove Cemetery Thursday afternoon following the reception. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Operation Homefront, or Christ Episcopal Church.