Charles Ward Austin

peacefully on November 8, 2025, surrounded by loving family.

Charlie was born November 5, 1932 in Seattle, Washington,

the son of Carl Philip Austin and Mary Elizabeth “Ib” Hurlbut

Austin. Charlie graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) in

1950. He spent his freshman year at Harvard before returning to

Seattle to earn Bachelor’s, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in

Mathematics from the University of Washington. Before starting

his doctoral studies, Charlie served for three years in the U.S.

Navy as an officer aboard the USS Boxer and the USS Midway,

both aircraft carriers. After leaving active duty in 1958 he

remained in the Naval Reserve for another 17 years before

retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

As a first-year graduate student in 1954, Charlie taught an

undergraduate math class in which a promising freshman, Carol

Robinson, was enrolled. At the end of the semester, after she

earned the highest grade in the class, he called to congratulate

her and, incidentally, to ask her out on a movie date. With

Charlie’s Naval service looming, they got engaged during spring

semester and were married on June 10, 1955 at the Episcopal

Church of the Epiphany in Seattle. The young newlyweds

honeymooned in San Francisco before Charlie shipped out with

the Navy.

By the time Charlie completed his PhD in 1962 he and Carol

had four young children while living in graduate student housing

at UW. The young family then moved to Boulder, where Charlie

had been hired as an Assistant Professor at the University of

Colorado. Their final move was to Southern California in 1966,

where Charlie had been hired as a tenured Associate Professor at

California State College (now University), Long Beach. From

1967 to 1973 he chaired the math department and was promoted

to full Professor in 1971. He later served the university as an

Associate Dean and, after a return to the classroom in the 1980s,

moved to the President’s Office, from which he retired in 1994

as an Associate Vice President.

Charlie and Carol settled in Garden Grove in 1967, raising their

children in the home in which they lived for nearly 60 years.

They were active members of St. Anselm of Canterbury

Episcopal Church, where Charlie served as a lay reader, on the

Vestry, and as a leader of the high school youth group. At the

Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana since 2013, Charlie and

Carol were active in the seniors’ group and volunteered in the

church office.

In retirement, Charlie was an avid birdwatcher, developing a life

list of over 2000 species identified in his travels with Carol.

Together they visited all 50 states and 65 countries on five

continents.

Charlie’s children and 8 grandchildren remember his sense of

humor, his calm temperament, his love of baseball, literature,

and the arts, his skill in sketching and watercolor, his way of

simplifying complex math ideas, and his love for nature.

Charlie is survived by wife Carol; children Catherine Thiemann

(Michael), John (Lauren Balderama), David (Karen Gulliver)

and Tom (Kim Law); grandchildren Claire Thiemann, Andrew

Austin, Evan Austin, Annabel Austin, Henry Thiemann, Graham

Austin (Annaliese Johnson), Seth Austin, and Paul Thiemann.

Preceding him in death are son Charles Ward Austin Jr, who

died in infancy, parents Carl and Ib Austin, and brother Philip

Austin.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, December 6 at

10:30 a.m., at the Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana.

Interment will be in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier.