Charles Nathan Cunningham

In high school, he was a wrestler. He was also a good chess player. He would have been the high school champion in chess, but his brother Richard beat him. Charles later beat a chess master, and the feat was published in a national chess magazine.

While still in high school, Charles would talk about joining the United States Army which he did on February 1, 1973, when he finished his schooling at Madison High School in Middletown, Ohio. The Army sent him to Germany where he spied on the East Germans by listening to their radio conversations. The Army taught him electronics and Morse code. Morse code was how the communists were communicating. Charles could not tell anyone what he heard. He received a National Defense Service Medal.

When he got out of the Army the first time, he lived with his brother John for a year in Calhoun, Georgia, where Charles worked at a carpet mill. Then he spent three years at Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee. After college, Charles joined the Tennessee National Guard and eventually returned to the U.S. Army. The Army sent him to Europe and taught him calibration. Charles left the Army again and worked for some time in the South Pacific islands. Later, he spent some time in Saudia Arabia, Bosnia and possibly Iraq, working in calibration and making a lot of money. When the Gulf War broke out in 1990, he left Saudi Arabia and came back to the United States to stay. He bought some farmland in Missouri where he lived for the rest of his life.

He enjoyed talking about politics and researching information about his uncle Calvin Cunningham who was lost at sea during World War II while on a bombing mission. Charles also had been a bus driver in Alaska, drove a truck for JB Hunt and drove the Amish, charging them a lower fee than usual.

Known for his generosity, Charles was serving overseas when he heard that a friend was having financial hardship. He took a leave of absence to pay off the friend’s large debt. While he did not have children, he loved his many nieces and nephews. One of his nephews, Nathan Kendrick was named after him.

Charles is survived by his brothers John (Carolyn) from Georgia, James (Theresa) Cunningham from South Carolina and Richard Cunningham from Israel and a sister Sharon (Wayne) Davis from Ohio. Preceding him in death are two sisters, Priscilla Kendrick and Becky Roberts; his brother-in-law Darrel Kendrick; and four nieces, Tabitha Kendrick, Katie Roberts, Robin Ponting and Mercy Whitacre.

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