Charles Neuhauser

My family and I wish to thank everyone for coming today to honor our father. We are deeply touched by your love, compassion, and respect. We are gathered here today not to commemorate his death, but to celebrate his life. This is what our father wanted. Many of you may not have known our father. He was born in 1930 in the Bronx in NY city. He grew up during the Great Depression facing a world stricken with poverty and despair, the likes of which we will probably never know or understand. He served in the Navy during the Korean War and married our mother in 1958. Our parents settled and lived most of their lives in NJ. Our father was one of the most intelligent, informed, and well read people I have ever known. Literally a walking history book. He had a great gift for being able to cut through extraneous events and information and get to the heart of a matter. Our father developed great perspective and helped make us wiser and better people. He started with nothing and worked 3 jobs during my childhood to support his family. During the daytime he worked in sales for Consolidated cigars. At night he pumped gas at the local gas station. On weekends he worked as a chef and Maitre de. If you were to ask him, he would tell you "I was just doing what I felt I needed to do to take care of my family". Our parents were active in the Jewish Community in Somerville, NJ and worked hard to raise money to build a new Temple, Community Center, and pool. Our father and mother's dream was that their children should have a better, more successful, and easier life than they had. And they did everything in their power to make it happen. Our parents took great pride in the success and accomplishments of their children. I know

this because, their friends seemed to know all about my life before I even met them. Our parents retired to Ft Myers Florida in the late 1990's living in a beautiful community called Punta Rassa. They lived on the water, overlooking the islands of Sanibel and Captiva. Our parents marveled and were humbled by how fortunate they were to live in such beautiful surroundings. Our father would often say, "Can you believe that we actually live here"? But make no mistake about it, our father and mother did not end up there by any privilege, they earned every penny by working hard. Our mother was known as the Queen of Punta Rassa and our father was known as the Mayor of Punta Rassa. They formed many wonderful, meaningful, and long-lasting relationships within the community. Our father was very talented in the culinary arts. Although he could prepare just about any style of food, his shrimp scampi was legendary at Punta Rassa. He was also a gifted fisherman. He was especially proud of his grandson, Turner, his accomplishments and dream of attending West Point. Our father was so charismatic and engaging that he touched and inspired those who knew him. He was so full of life, that those who knew him can not believe that he is no longer with us. Our father faced declining health and impending death with courage, grace and dignity. If you were to ask our father in the last days of his life, he would say, "do not grieve because I had a good life, I had fun, and I am so proud that my children grew up to be good, successful people". He also said that he had no regrets. For whatever I have accomplished in my life, I could never hope to live up to our father but only to succeed him. Of this, I can only say about our father that he did the best he could for his family, starting with little, working and sacrificing so that his family prospered and his children could have the opportunity for a better life than he had. Our father did not see any of this as sacrifices, but as his responsibility as a father and a husband. And indeed, in the final analysis, that is how our father wanted to be remembered - as a father, a husband, a man. Let us take solace in the joy of his life. May his life be forever a blessing and let us and say Amen.