Sage advice tells us to pick the right spouse, and Chuck Leaverton did just that. His ever-patient wife, Sue, moved a dozen times during his 22-year career with the U.S. Air Force, all the while rearing the couple’s six children.

Chuck was born in Pratt, Kansas, but his parents moved him and his younger brother to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area when Chuck was young. There, he remembers large gatherings with grandparents and extended family. In 1946, Chuck was in 9^th grade when the family bought a 10-acre farm in Arvada, CO, which had a population of only about 2,500 at the time.

Chuck’s father delivered heavy blocks of ice on a route in the Five Points area, and Chuck helped him summers and weekends. Chuck remembers ruefully one day when he carried a huge block of ice up three flights of stairs only to have the customer refuse it. Chuck weighed just 115 pounds.

When he was growing up, Chuck needed to hitch rides to high school four miles away. There he wrestled and played football and basketball. He also enjoyed having a horse, Scouting and participating in the Arvada Presbyterian Church. After graduating in a class of 89, he majored in physical sciences at Colorado State University, then called Colorado A&M College. It was at the popular Aggies Haylofters square-dance club that Chuck met Sue. The couple married in 1953. Due to Chuck’s military career, Sue attended four other colleges and earned her college diploma after 16 years.

Chuck had served in ROTC during college. Six months after graduation, he briefly served as an ANGUS officer (Air National Guard U.S.) before starting on active duty. He qualified for basic Navigation School and became a member of the B-52 electronic warfare officer crew.

In 1961, after undergoing guided missile operations training, he became an Atlas-F Missile combat crew commander in Lincoln, NE, at the height of the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. Chuck also spent two years as a systems program staff officer on the Apollo Program at NASA Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. He was transferred to California and became the executive officer for the wing commander who oversaw missile launches at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Later, at NORAD headquarters in Colorado Springs, he was a joint space research and development officer. The family enjoyed living on five acres of pine trees in the Black Forest area. Chuck’s last posting was in Massachusetts as a chief of the test division for Base and Installation Security Systems.

Chuck retired from the Air Force after 22 years, and he returned to school to earn two Master’s degrees.   He put his research and development experience to work for 19 years with a private company that contracted with his former program office at Hanscom AFB in Bedford, MA.

Chuck and Sue enjoyed exploring the many places where they were stationed. They hiked the Appalachian Trail, took hut trips in New Hampshire and continued square dancing as both dancers and teachers. In addition to their six children, the couple had 14 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

When Chuck retired for the second time in the late 1990s, he and Sue debated where to live. To help with the decision, they traveled southeast from Massachusetts, trying out many towns before finally settling on Hendersonville, N.C. They lived in North Carolina for 14 years before moving to Aurora in 2015.

Chuck and Sue’s oldest son helped them find an independent residential community. They enjoyed time with family and got to know a new circle of friends. They spent 18 months looking for a church home. On a visit to Montview, the new co-pastor, Clover Reuter Beal, welcomed them so warmly that they decided to join the church. Sadly, Sue passed away in 2017 after experiencing some long-time health concerns. The couple had been married for 64 years.

Chuck says he has been blessed with a full, active and enriching life of nine decades.  He remains very active playing tennis, swimming and traveling. He recently returned from visiting a friend in Ecuador.  He attributes his longevity to optimism, flexibility, staying curious and being interested in new ideas. 

– Submitted by Brooke Durland