Charles Hess

Stoughton - Charles Stevens Hess, 89, of Stoughton, passed away on December 10, 2017, just five hours short of his 90th birthday. 'Chuck' was born in Chicago on December 11, 1927, the only child of Shirley Miner Hess and Charles H. Hess. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in order to help survivors return at the end of WWII. He visited Iowa Jima a couple of months after the invasion, and then was stationed in Hawaii. The camp paper got a hold of his photo album of gals he had known back in Chicago and every week they ran a new photo under the banner, "Another Girlfriend of Charles Hess!" He gained quite a reputation in camp.

After six years in service he was discharged and spent 2 years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, choosing that school because it was close to Devil's Lake where his family had spent numerous summer vacations. He then re-enlisted for Korea, signed up for counter-intelligence and was trained in Baltimore, MD. He was on duty in Japan and China until the end of a two year stint. He moved to Florida because his parents had retired to Bradenton, and there Chuck took jobs as a manufacturer's representative, a Canada Dry salesman, and worked on the guidance system for Polaris submarine missiles.

He married Katharine Helfer on April 10, 1963, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Sarasota, FL, taking their honeymoon in Rainbow Springs. In 1965 the Hess family moved to Stoughton, Wisconsin, so that Chuck could finish his Bachelors degree and thereafter a Masters in Physical Geography at the UW-Madison. His classroom lessons were often excuses for family outings to hunt for fossils, visit glacial moraines, and study the erosion on Lake Superior via kayak. His collection of geological specimens and fossils led to other collections of first edition books, Victorian antiques, kerosene lamps, cartoon figurines and teddy bears.

Charles Hess worked for the State of Wisconsin, first in a capacity as a physical geographer for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, then moving into computer acquisition until his retirement. Longtime residents of an impressive corner Victorian on Stoughton's North Page Avenue, he and Kay downsized ten years ago to a smaller home in the nearby Venevol community. After the death of his wife in June of this year, Chuck battled a variety of age-related illnesses but finally lost that struggle last Sunday in Stoughton Hospital with his daughter at his bedside. Charles S. Hess is survived by his daughter Patty Censky, her husband Tom Censky, and Patty's children Maxwell Pape and Hadley Pape Campbell, as well as his son, F. Scott Hess, his wife Gita Tabatabai Hess, and their two daughters Ava and Atiyeh.

Services will be held privately at a later date.