Charles R. Oehrle, age 93, passed away April 12, 2021. Chuck was born in Lawrence, Kansas July 24, 1927 to the late Charles F. and Ethel Mull Oehrle. He graduated from high school at Wentworth Military Academy, in Lexington, Missouri. After high school, he served briefly in the Navy and was discharged in 1946. He graduated four years later from the University of Nebraska, a member of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity, with a Bachelor’s Degree and a commission in the Army Reserve.
His family had moved to Lincoln, Nebraska immediately after WWII. After graduation, he moved to Indianapolis as a representative of Munsingwear, Inc. and one year later, married Phoebe Walker.
In 1954, Chuck entered the insurance industry, specializing in business and estate planning for the next 45 years. At age 35, he spent five years of evening classes at Robert H. McKinney School of Law to graduate in 1968 with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. He continued his insurance brokerage practice for the next 30 years. Chuck and his wife Phoebe were the owners of Skyline Travel, which they opened in 1971 and owned for sixteen years. One of his favorite travel destinations was Chichester, England, where he studied fine furniture restoration and Phoebe studied pottery.
Chuck’s wife, Phoebe, passed away in 1987. Chuck was fortunate to find love again with Lucinda “Cindy” Jackson and they married in 1990. Since his marriage to Cindy, Chuck spent his summer months in Pentwater, Michigan. He also built and decorated his Michigan house with many of his antiques. In order to enhance his interest in antique furniture, Chuck spent ten years as an apprentice furniture restorer at Steven Postans Antiques in Sarasota, Florida, while vacationing there with Cindy during January and February and finally retired from his hobby in 2011. Chuck and Cindy were privileged to have wonderful friends and family.
Chuck is survived by his two children, Philip A. Oehrle (Carla) and Jennifer Lee Shaw (Dick) and his two stepsons, Jeff Jackson and Eric Jackson. He has seven grandchildren, Lisa Behnke (Matthew), Capt. Andrew Oehrle, USAF and Aleksey Oehrle, Cole and Olivia Jackson and Trae and Chloe Ketcham and two great grandchildren, Phoebe and Ruby Behnke. Chuck was preceded in death by his first wife, Phoebe Walker Oehrle and his second wife, Lucinda Jackson Oehrle, his brother, Kenneth F. Oehrle, of Stonington, Connecticut and sister, Marlene Albert, of Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Chuck is best known for his lifelong friendships, his devotion to his family and his relish for collecting and restoring antique furniture. Chuck had a very vibrant personality and will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He was grateful for his good fortune and believed in giving back. Since 1982, he provided scholarship assistance each year to law students at the Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
A visitation for Chuck will be held Monday, April 19, from 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM at Leppert Mortuary, 740 E. 86th St., Indianapolis, IN 46240 followed by a memorial service from 11:30 AM to 12:00. Masks are required and social distancing exercised. A livestream of Chuck's funeral service can be found on his tribute page at: www.leppertmortuary.com
In lieu of flowers the family requests you consider making a memorial contribution to the McKinney School of Law Endowed Scholarship Fund (account 0370006515). Checks should be made payable to the Indiana University Foundation and mailed to IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law, c/o IU Foundation, P.O. Box 6460, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6460.
Fond memories may be shared at www.dignitymemorial.com for the Oehrle family.
Tribute for My Dad
The first thing that comes to mind when I think about my dad is that he took care of problems and he took care of people and not just family. He was always very aware of the lives of people around him; he noticed things and solved the problems that he saw. When I was growing up, a lovely woman named Mary worked for us, my grandmother, and several other families. It bothered dad that Mary would not get any Social Security benefits when she was old. So, he went to each family and convinced them to pay what would be their share of the appropriate employer amount of Social Security. He set up the details and each family paid their share quarterly. This went on for as many years as I can remember. Dad never told me about this, I found out from my grandmother when I was a teenager. I think a lot of people have stories of dad stepping in and helping like this.
Most recently, his two greatest problems were his golf game and getting out to the restaurants he liked for dinner, since he wasn’t driving anymore. Fewer than two weeks ago we were sitting at the bar at Binkley’s and Dad solved the dinner problem. He told Dick he had just decided to get a motor scooter and come to Binkley’s for dinner every night! Last Sunday, the day before he left us, we were watching the Master’s and he confidently told me he had solved the golf problem; he said “I’m just going to rent a hotel room right on a fairway this summer, then I won’t have to walk so far”.
Truly, Dad always had that zest for life and great experiences. He always made sure we had great experiences too. In the early years, Dad worked so hard to make the Million Dollar Round Table Convention every year. So, our early summer vacations were always centered around conventions at luxurious places like the Greenbriar or Boca Raton, mom driving the kids and all of us camping for the rest of the vacation. The problem was on our best trip, a convention in Lucerne Switzerland, where we got a taste of luxury foreign travel! It was expensive! So mom and dad solved that problem by opening a travel agency. They gave us so many great trips. It’s been great the past few years traveling with him again. We’ve mostly gone to Sarasota and the drives back were almost the best part of the trip. We took back roads so we could stop at interesting places, like Wakefield-Scearce, America’s foremost antique silver gallery, and a friend’s horse farm.
I have another fun, recent travel memory with dad. This time, Dad and I were flying home from Sarasota with Cindy, who was frail by then. Flying home was a problem, Cindy did not feel well and being in a wheelchair had to wait until all the passengers disembarked. Dad solved that problem too. This 89-year-old man went to the front of the plane and hurried all the passenger along, exhorting them to move along and pick up the pace. The flight crew stared in awe and wanted to hire dad on the spot; they had never deboarded a plane so fast.
Dad never met a stranger and all his life his favorite place in a restaurant was the bar. But he was a particular man and that included cocktails. Like most of his generation, he relished his 5 o’clock cocktail and liked it done properly. He would often sit at the bar at the Aristocat. But their barware was not up to par. He always asked for a stemmed glass for his Negroni. So, the bartenders bought a beautiful, large, stemmed cocktail glass, put it on a shelf behind the bar with the expensive liquor, and reserved it for Chuck. After Cindy left us, he would go in alone. Dad delighted in telling me about the two young women who were so impressed by him, they picked up his bar tab.
His counsel, that was by far his most valuable gift! If I was hotheaded or worried sick about work or a personal problem, I would call my dad and simmer down long enough to go see him. He would look at all sides of my problem, which I sometimes did not like. But he gave me good advice, always. One thing I am glad about is I made sure he knew I needed that counsel and appreciated him.
I will remember my dad as a man of action, of flair, of fairness, who did many acts of kindness. He had so many interests. He actually read those old leather-bound collections of Hawthorne and Emerson. He read poetry. He made a note to me that he would like this poem by Carl Sandberg to be read at his funeral.
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years, page 408.
The pale horse had come. To a deep river, to a far country, to a
by-and-by whence no man returns had gone the child of Nancy Hanks and Tom
Lincoln, the wilderness boy who found far lights and tall rainbows to live by, whose
name even before he died had become a legend interwoven with men’s struggle
for freedom the world over.
I will miss him so.
Farewell
I am saddened that I have to say goodbye. I miss Dad so much; my life will be so very diminished now. One day, I will begin to internalize that I was lucky to have him so long; I had really planned on a few more years. But he was no longer the Energizer Bunny dad, running rings around all of us. He was tired. And he loathed that, the ever-increasing fatigue. Finally, a problem Dad could not solve. Still, all that he did solve, create, and instill will live on. Most importantly, dad’s values continue with Phil and I and our families. So, I am going to try to take comfort in this poem by Samuel Butler, that I think dad would agree with.
Continuance
I fall asleep in the full and certain hope
That my slumber shall not be broken;
And that, though I be all forgetting,
Yet shall I not be all-forgotten,
But continue that life in the thoughts and deeds
Of those I have loved.
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