Charles Henry LEVAD
LEVAD, CARLSON, MOSIMAN, BAUGUS, BEDIG
Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 4/26/2012 at 17:44:15
Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
December 29, 2010MASON CITY - Charles Henry LEVAD, 70, Mason City, died Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010, at the Muse-Norris Hospice Inpatient Unit in Mason City.
A funeral Mass for Charles will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 31, at the Holy Family Catholic Church, 714 North Adams, Mason City, with the Rev. Kenneth GEHLING officiating.
Visitation will be held from 4 until 7 p.m. with a Scriptural Wake service at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30, at the Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 Third Street N.E., Mason City. Burial will be held in the Memorial Park Cemetery, Highway 122 West, Mason City, with military graveside honors conducted by members of the Mason City Veterans Memorial association.
The eldest of twelve children, Charles Henry LEVAD grew up on the family farm his grandparents had homesteaded, and attended a country school until the seventh grade. At twenty-one he joined the United States Air Force, learned Russian, and was stationed in Hof/Saale Germany, at the height of the Cold War, where he was a radio spy. It was from the Russian MiG pilots he listened in on that he heard President Kennedy had been shot, though the news had not yet reached his family in rural Winnebago County.
After his military service, Charles finished his bachelor's degree and went on to earn his J.D., With Distinction, from Chicago-Kent College of Law, the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
As Chief of the Prosecution Assistance Division of the Illinois Attorney General's Office Charles represented the State of Illinois in Moore v. Illinois, a murder case which went to the Supreme Court in 1977. The decision of the lower courts was partially upheld, Justice Harry BLACKMUN writing the majority opinion, Justice Thurgood MARSHALL the dissenting.
After his work in Illinois, where he met his wife Trena, he returned to Iowa and opened a private practice, LEVAD Law Office.
Practicing law for the last 32 years in Mason City, Charles was generous with his time and talents. He was involved in pro bono work through the Iowa Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project, for which he was given an Award for Extraordinary Service by Legal Services Corporation of Iowa in 1997. (Providing counsel for his many brothers and sisters over the years did not, unfortunately, count toward his volunteer work.)
Charles also contributed to the growth of the legal profession as an instructor at North Iowa Area Community College and Buena Vista College.
Much like his father, the late Gordon LEVAD, Charles was a consummate hobbyist. He enjoyed gardening, canning, winemaking, beekeeping, bird-watching, and coin collecting, and his innate curiosity led him to teach himself about astronomy, meteorology, and computers - he was always an early adopter of new technologies. Sparked by his work in military intelligence, Charles was also an avid ham radio enthusiast.
His most consuming pastime, however, was building an eighteen-foot Weekender sailboat. After reading about it in Popular Science, he sent away for the plans. As Charles said himself, it was a big project, but he thought he could do it "a bite at a time, just like you eat an elephant." The boat took nearly twenty years to finish, but she sailed on Crystal Lake on April 24, 1999. (And yes, the project also required him to teach himself how to sail.)
Though he had these many interests and professional responsibilities, Charles always made time for his children and grandchildren. He loved to play chess and Scrabble, and he was a wonderful storyteller with a quick wit, especially when it came to puns and wordplay. A lifelong Democrat (even after witnessing the riots at the 1968 convention in Chicago), he was always up for a rousing political discussion. And though he struggled with cancer for the past five years, he still gathered the family for RAGBRAI rides and the annual golf tournament that he and Trena have hosted since 1988.
That family includes: Those left to cherish his memory are his wife, Trena LEVAD of Mason City; his children, Daniel (Laura) LEVAD of Pocahontas, Ill., Lisa CARLSON, Douglas LEVAD and Anthony LEVAD all of Mason City; eleven grandchildren, Amanda, Samantha, Kelsey, Athena, Jacob, Hailey, Alexander, Rosella, Lukas, Kaitlyn, and Seth Levad; nine brothers and sisters, David (Betty Jo) LEVAD of Yakama, Wash., Steven (Barbara) LEVAD of Poplar, Mont., Joseph LEVAD of Mason City, Thomas LEVAD and special friend, Dorothy of Wilton, James (Judy) LEVAD of Forest City, Mary MOSIMAN of Forest City, Robert (Debra) LEVAD of Forest City, Susan (John) BAUGUS of White Bear Lake, Minn., and Sharon (Mike) BEDIG of Watertown, Mass.; many nieces, nephews, and other extended family and many friends.
Charles was preceded in death by his parents, and two brothers, Richard and Eddy LEVAD.
Charles inspired everyone with his intelligence, humor, and generosity.
Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapel, 641-423-2372, www.colonialchapels.com.
Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2012
Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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