Charles Harrison O'Rourke III

Charles Harrison O’Rourke, III was born on July 1st, 1940, in New Orleans, Louisiana to Frances Baas and Charles Harrison O’Rourke, II. He was the middle child and is survived by his sister, Marjorie O’Rourke Hosemann and his brother Glen O’Rourke. He graduated from Lourdes Elementary and then Fortier High School, both in New Orleans. After high school, he enlisted in the United States Navy, served 4 years, and met a beautiful young woman named Hawthorne Ruth Ghent while serving. They got married 2 years later on January 4, 1961, after he honorably discharged from the service. He went on to attend UC Ontario to study computer programming and started working as a computer programmer for Sunkist Growers in Los Angeles. He continued working as a computer programmer until he was promoted to become a systems analyst. Charles and Hawthorne decided to start a family so Kelly was born in 1968. Charles and Hawthorne took a spontaneous vacation to Oregon and fell in love with it there immediately. Charles found an ad in a local newspaper for job openings at Oregon State University and was able to secure that job when they got back to LA, so they packed up, grabbed their 18-month-old baby Kelly, and put everything they owned into a U-Haul with only Charles’ map skills to get them to Corvallis, Oregon. He started work as a Systems Analyst for the board of higher education handling budgets and payroll for Oregon State University and continued to work there for over 30 years. During his time at OSU, he was also able to enjoy his love of sailing when he got a Catalina 22 ft sailboat so he could sail the world. Charles, Hawthorne, and little Kelly would go down to Fern Ridge, near Eugene almost every weekend to sail. After all those years sailing at Fern Ridge, he got a 27 ft Erickson with best buddy Bob Barnes. They raced together on the Columbia River, Oregon coast, Washington coast, and even ventured up Victoria Canada and down to San Francisco to sail. Charles loved racing sail boats and that continued for more than 15 incredible years. If Charles could pick one thing on this planet to use to fix thing for the rest of his life it would be Duct Tape. He loved working on anything electrical and always enjoyed fixing things. Charles enjoyed going fishing & camping all over, including taking a trip to visit all 50 states. Charles was a very simple man, he loved his family and always put them first. Hawthorne loved to travel so he was able to travel the world with her. They would visit the Philippines every 2 years, they went to Turkey, Greece, the Greek islands, Israel, Puerto Rico, Mexico, South Korea, and Japan during their travels. Charles retired in 1998 from OSU but then in 1999 he received a job offer he couldn’t resist to help the Orange County, California (Santa Ana school district) switch everything over and completely redesign their computer programs and systems for Y2K. After helping in California for a little over a year Charles decided it was time for a true retirement at the end of 2000. A few years later in 2004 Charles purchased one of the greatest land vehicles on the planet, his 38 ft 2 slide out Newmar Moutainaire motorhome which he truly loved. Charles quickly became a snowbird traveling to Arizona, New Mexico, California & Texas every winter to escape the Oregon rain. Charles loved taking care of and helping raise his 2 amazing, intelligent, and good-looking grandchildren, Brittney & Preston. Charles took them to Disneyland, the Oregon Coast, and many other places in the RV. His daughter Kelly also gave him the opportunity to be a grandfather to 4 more incredible grandchildren that he loved (Elizabeth, Andrew, Stephen and Jane). Charles & Hawthorne sold their Corvallis home in 2019 after owning it for over 50 years and raising Kelly there to move in with Kelly, their son-in-law Douglas, and Preston in Sherwood, OR. Charles lived there for over 3 years and during that time the COVID-19 pandemic hit so he hunkered down and used the time to construct numerous home projects, planting countless fruits and vegetables in planters which he hand built. Charles and Hawthorne decided it was time for a change and for their final chapter to be in a different location. They packed their bags in March 2022 and took one last pioneer style journey form Sherwood Oregon, to San Antonio, Texas using nothing but Charles’ paper maps once again. Charles enjoyed the sunshine, wildlife, people, and overall atmosphere of his new home in Texas. He was laid to rest and was guided to heaven by angels on August 4th, 2022.