Charles Clayton "Chuck" Howard (1944-2020)

HOWARD, FAYLOR, RIGGS HESSELTINE, DUAGAN, SHROVER, BAIRD

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 11/1/2020 at 05:11:24

ILLINOIS CITY, Illinois - Charles Clayton "Chuck" Howard, 75, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, October 21, 2020, in Shreveport, Louisiana, after a sudden illness.

Graveside services will be at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, November 2, 2020, at Drury-Reynolds Cemetery in Illinois. Reverend Brian Oliver will officiate. The family requests that everyone please wear a mask if you are attending the graveside service. Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers is in charge of arrangements. A memorial has been established in his memory to benefit the American Cancer Society and the Izaak Walton League. Online memorial can be made at www.wittichfuneralhome.com .

Chuck was born on October 26, 1944, in Muscatine, Iowa, the son of Leonard Howard and Frances (Faylor) Howard. In 1963, he graduated from Rockridge High School in Taylor Ridge, Illinois, and after attending Muscatine Jr. College for one year, he joined the U.S. Air Force and proudly served at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota and in Korea. After returning home, he used his electrical training, working for International Harvester and ALCOA, eventually owning Fry Electric for many years. He was also a Muscatine small business owner, serving the community with his Mid-City Car Wash.

On September 21, 1999, he married Dianna (Riggs) Hesseltine, in Many, Louisiana, who remains to lovingly remember him. Chuck is also survived by his son, Jason Howard and Jason's mother, Nancy Howard of Muscatine; stepson Michael Hesseltine (Casey Dunagan) of North Liberty, IA; stepdaughter Erika (Hesseltine) Riggs (Sara Riggs) of Iowa City, grandsons Triston Shroyer and Bradley Howard, step-granddaughter, Olivia Baird of Iowa City, and step-grandson, Gabriel Baird of Iowa City, one sister, Phyllis Lucas of Arizona, a brother-in-law, two sisters-in-law and many nieces and nephews. Dianna and Chuck's cat Rascal is still searching the house for his buddy Chuck.

Chuck enjoyed fishing in Iowa and especially on Toledo Bend Reservoir in Louisiana and Texas as often as he could travel there. Chuck's other passions were flying his Piper Archer, trap shooting, his self-restored prize-winning classic Pontiac Catalina, and volunteering with the Izaak Walton League of Muscatine to sponsor youth trap shoots, and was a member of the Buffalo Prairie, Illinois Masonic Lodge, for which he served as Grand Master. He proudly restored the barn on his family's homestead farm along the Mississippi River. Chuck will also be fondly remembered and missed by his weekly breakfast group.

He was preceded in death by his parents; two brothers, Melvin and Richard Howard; one sister in infancy; and one sister-in-law, Marion Howard.