Charles "Chuck" Hillary

OREGON - Charles John Hillary, “Chuck” to his friends, was born on Sept. 20, 1951, to Paul and Maxine, and from that point on, he lived an adventurous life. As a high schooler, he and his friends caught a band of armed robbers who were hiding in a cave. This is true. The crooks were arrested, and a school assembly was held to honor him and his friends. Throughout his life Chuck loved to travel, especially to National Parks, Canada, Europe, Alaska, and Orange Beach, Alabama. Road trips were his favorite, even though, or maybe because, he never was able to find the fastest route between point A and B. He was a proud proponent of Rock ‘n’ Roll philosophy - there was very little that couldn't be best summed up in a song lyric from the 60s - and he tried to live his life so that when he stared into the vacuum of his eyes he didn't need to make a deal. Chuck was an avid hunter and fisherman whose fish were always bigger in the retelling. His greatest catch was when Cindy (nee Armstrong) agreed to be his wife. They spent 36 happy years together, enjoying ski trips, fishing trips and hunting trips, and many memorable trips with family and friends. Together they had two children, Rebecca “Becky” and Nicholas “Nick.” Chuck taught Becky and Nick to be weird, and to love science fiction and fantasy. They remember their dad as a guy who could fix anything and who would drive two and a half hours in the middle of the night to help his adult children with whatever they needed, be it illness or car trouble. And whatever the issue, Chuck never failed to make it better. Before an adventurous retirement, which included fast cars and sandy beaches, Chuck was a proud longtime employee of the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory where he taught thousands of boy scouts and others how to make paper at five National Boy Scout Jamborees and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Chuck's favorite memory was of attending outdoor Mass at one of the Jambos. It was pouring rain. Always one to be prepared, Chuck had brought along an enormous umbrella. Not one to sit around and watch when he could help, Chuck invited one soaked boy scout after another to join him under the umbrella. As Chuck was leaving Mass, a troop leader thanked him for sharing his "tent." Chuck was a lifelong superfan of Badgers football, and if he could tell the coach anything it would be to try running the ball to the outside on first or second down instead of running it up the middle twice and failing to convert a pass on third down. The best of us are taken too early, as was the case with Chuck, whose clever brain was no match for the evil known as glioblastoma. Chuck died peacefully at Agrace HospiceCare on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, surrounded by his family. Cindy, Becky, and Nick, along with Chuck's father, Paul Hillary (Charlotte), siblings, Dave Hillary (Sandy), Joe Hillary (Linda), Marlene Hillary, Randy Hillary (Heidi), Shelley Gleason (Jim), Kelly Summers (Tim), and Dell Hillary (Birkley), and all of his nieces and nephews, mourn that the world is a lesser place without Chuck in it. But they celebrate that the world is a better place because Chuck was here. Cindy, Becky, and Nick would like to thank all of the medical personnel who cared for Chuck during the most difficult year of his life and send special thanks to Dr. Steven Howard and R.N. Theresa Ruszkiewicz. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at HOLY MOTHER OF CONSOLATION CATHOLIC CHURCH, 651 N. Main St., Oregon, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Visitation will be held at GUNDERSON OREGON FUNERAL AND CREMATION CARE, 1150 Park St., Oregon, from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, and at the church from 10 a.m. until the time of the Mass on Wednesday to remember a unique life well-lived. If you would like to send a memorial, please donate to Agrace HospiceCare or Dr. Steven Howard's fund to study glioblastoma. Don't send flowers. Instead, do as Chuck would do. Give yourself permission to live an amazing life now, while you are still alive to live it. Take that vacation. Give your quarter to someone at Aldi. Share your tent. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com . Gunderson Oregon Funeral & Cremation Care 1150 Park St. (608) 835-3515