Dad’s exodus from 499 started when Jim joined the US Army Air Corp in 1944 and continued at regular intervals until Paul left for San Jose State in 1952.  On the day that Dad took Paul to the airport he wrote in his diary "Well he's gone!", expressing the finality... the end of an era... all the boys are gone! 

In the years that followed Jim's departure, Charlie traveled the country by car, train and air, to provide support to each of the boys in their educational and military endeavors.  To Colorado to visit Jim at Lowery AFB, to California to visit Jerry at UC Berkeley, to Annapolis to visit Bob. 

After his retirement and move to California, Charlie was in constant communication with the family, writing letters, weekly phone calls and visits to their homes.  Sunday visits to Charlie"s home were carefully scheduled to avoid over crowding by the 23 grandchildren but even then those little fingers would somehow find their way sight unseen to the adjustment controls of Grandpa's TV.

Charlie delighted in the fact that his daughter in laws provided frequent invitations to dinner, washed and ironed his laundry and called on a regular basis if only to just "check in".  He recorded each event in his daily diary and kept a complete record of calls, visits, meals, services performed by each of the boys and their wives tallied up at the end of each year.  Its not clear if these statistics were used in deciding who would receive jewelry boxes and other items he created in his workshop or paintings that he made on his trips around California.

But one thing is clear, Charlie enjoyed his retirement years to the fullest, with constant visits, travel, shop work and interest in the families, their events and accomplishments until his untimely death at age 72 from complications following a stroke that resulted from his distrust of medical doctors due to Marie’s death and a life long position to avoid physical examinations.