Charles Allen Spiker

Charles Allen Spiker ("Chuck" to all who knew him), passed away quietly on June 26, 2024, in La Crosse, WI at the age of 81, at the same Hillview Health Care Center that he had championed as a County Supervisor.

Born on May 27, 1943, in Prairie du Chien, WI, Chuck worked at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse as a Security Officer for 30 years. However, his true passions were politics and sports.

In politics, Chuck was a fixture on the La Crosse County Board for 27 years, developing a reputation as someone who worked tirelessly to keep taxes as low as possible consistent with the provision of quality services to those same taxpayers. He also, as one colleague put it, "deeply believed that La Crosse County should care for the most vulnerable in our community," such as seniors.

While Chuck also served admirably for six terms on the Holmen Village board, helping to bring the Holmen Area Aquatic Center to fruition, you could find him most summer nights at the ball field watching anyone with a bat playing the national pastime.

Chuck loved watching all sports, but especially baseball and football, with the Brewers, Packers, and UWL being both whom he cheered most passionately for and who was responsible for half of his wardrobe, including an impressive closet full of baseball caps!

Active until the day his knees gave out, Chuck loved playing softball, tennis, and hunting everything that moved, from deer to squirrels. He also taught his two boys every sport he knew, though he never did get that left-handed middle reliever he wanted!

In his personal life, Chuck joined the Air Force to serve his country straight out of high school. He was stationed in Maine where he met his wife of 28 years, Sue Parent. They had two boys together, Scott and Mark, and he lived to see the addition of five grandchildren: Sam, Lucas, Ben, Austin, and Christopher, as well as two great-grandchildren, Ashton and Alexander. He was also fortunate to have two loving daughters-in-law, Noelle and Annie.

Sue and Chuck enjoyed twenty years of close friendship after their marriage concluded, and she was with him in his final decade as a caregiver and companion. What begins well sometimes ends that way, too.

An only child with a large and loving extended family, Chuck was preceded in death by his father, Charles Rudolph Spiker, and mother, Gladys (Tippery) Spiker, as well as dozens of great-uncles, -aunts, and cousins. They will all be together as a family now at last.

Chuck was a real presence in Holmen and La Crosse for decades and had many, many friends. The man could not go to a grocery store and leave in under two hours!

He left this earth as he lived upon it: a man of integrity, whose word was his bond, and who believed in reaching across the aisle to get things done for the good of the public he served. Needless to say, he will be missed...dearly.

A visitation and sharing of memories will be held on Saturday, June 13 from 10 a.m. until noon (with the memory sharing at 11 a.m.) at Schumacher-Kish Funeral Home, 200 West Ave., South. A lunch at Schmidty's will follow the visitation.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research: www.michaeljfox.org