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Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 from 9-11 AM. A funeral service will be held at 11 AM Tuesday at the funeral home followed by burial at Airmont Lutheran Cemetery, Suffern, NY.
Charles L. Hamilton, age 83 of Wayne, entered into eternal life on Thursday, January 7, 2016, with his family gathered at his bedside. He had been a Wayne resident since 1964.
The oldest of three children, Charlie was born in Nyack, NY and raised in Spring Valley. Sadly, he lost his mom when he was just eleven years old and then his father when he was fourteen. Charlie didn’t allow such adversity to slow him down, and he went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University, a Master’s degree from Dartmouth, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. In between achieving his Master’s degree and Ph.D., he served actively in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956.
After earning his Ph.D., Charlie worked as an Exploration Geologist for the New Jersey Zinc Company. Following that, he took his first teaching job at Rutgers University, Newark. One of the high points of his early career at Rutgers was in 1969 when he was called upon to perform the detailed analysis of lunar rock samples that had been brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts. He brought his children into the lab, excited to see the moon rock, and the kids were startlingly underwhelmed when they finally saw the much-celebrated ‘rock’; it wasn’t much larger than a jelly bean. He went on to become a professor at Montclair State College in the 1970’s and retired in 1997 after a very successful career.
Charlie enjoyed performing all of his own home improvements, woodworking, carpentry, and landscaping. He was an avid reader and particularly loved history and scientific topics. He also traveled with his wife MaryLou throughout the U.S., including Arizona a few times, Jackson, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, and a cruise to Alaska. He vacationed with his family nearly every summer at Lake Hortonia in Vermont, and they all have fond memories of those special times. He was a devoted Christian and had attended services at the Grace Bible Church in North Haledon for many years.
Charlie met his wife, MaryLou Jones, somewhat by chance at the Bailey’s Apple Orchard in Suffern, NY, where he worked the summer of 1950. Feelings were mutual and their first date was to a donkey baseball game. They married on June 5, 1954, and honeymooned on Cape Cod. After the wedding, they didn’t settle down in the traditional sense; moving eleven times in the next ten years while Charlie served in the Army and then started his career. Eventually, they bought a home in Wayne and have lived there for more than fifty years.
Charlie is survived by his loving wife of sixty one years; MaryLou of Wayne, his three children; Brian Hamilton and his wife Barbara of Dingmans, PA, Donald Hamilton and his wife Debra of Bloomingdale, NJ, and Deborah Alden and her husband John of North Haledon, NJ, and four grandchildren; Cristy Testino and her husband Peter of Hamburg, NJ, Steven Hamilton and his fiancé Theresa Henry of Parsippany, NJ, Rebecca Hamilton of Bloomingdale, NJ, and Kaitlyn Alden of North Haledon, NJ. He was predeceased by his sister Joyce of Phoenix, AZ in 2005, and by his brother Al of Spring Valley, NY, in 1996.
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Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 from 9-11 AM. A funeral service will be held at 11 AM Tuesday at the funeral home followed by burial at Airmont Lutheran Cemetery, Suffern, NY.
Services
Friends may visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 from 9-11 AM. A funeral service will be held at 11 AM Tuesday at the funeral home followed by burial at Airmont Lutheran Cemetery, Suffern, NY.
Charles L. Hamilton, age 83 of Wayne, entered into eternal life on Thursday, January 7, 2016, with his family gathered at his bedside. He had been a Wayne resident since 1964.
The oldest of three children, Charlie was born in Nyack, NY and raised in Spring Valley. Sadly, he lost his mom when he was just eleven years old and then his father when he was fourteen. Charlie didn’t allow such adversity to slow him down, and he went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University, a Master’s degree from Dartmouth, and a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. In between achieving his Master’s degree and Ph.D., he served actively in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956.
After earning his Ph.D., Charlie worked as an Exploration Geologist for the New Jersey Zinc Company. Following that, he took his first teaching job at Rutgers University, Newark. One of the high points of his early career at Rutgers was in 1969 when he was called upon to perform the detailed analysis of lunar rock samples that had been brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts. He brought his children into the lab, excited to see the moon rock, and the kids were startlingly underwhelmed when they finally saw the much-celebrated ‘rock’; it wasn’t much larger than a jelly bean. He went on to become a professor at Montclair State College in the 1970’s and retired in 1997 after a very successful career.
Charlie enjoyed performing all of his own home improvements, woodworking, carpentry, and landscaping. He was an avid reader and particularly loved history and scientific topics. He also traveled with his wife MaryLou throughout the U.S., including Arizona a few times, Jackson, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park, and a cruise to Alaska. He vacationed with his family nearly every summer at Lake Hortonia in Vermont, and they all have fond memories of those special times. He was a devoted Christian and had attended services at the Grace Bible Church in North Haledon for many years.
Charlie met his wife, MaryLou Jones, somewhat by chance at the Bailey’s Apple Orchard in Suffern, NY, where he worked the summer of 1950. Feelings were mutual and their first date was to a donkey baseball game. They married on June 5, 1954, and honeymooned on Cape Cod. After the wedding, they didn’t settle down in the traditional sense; moving eleven times in the next ten years while Charlie served in the Army and then started his career. Eventually, they bought a home in Wayne and have lived there for more than fifty years.
Charlie is survived by his loving wife of sixty one years; MaryLou of Wayne, his three children; Brian Hamilton and his wife Barbara of Dingmans, PA, Donald Hamilton and his wife Debra of Bloomingdale, NJ, and Deborah Alden and her husband John of North Haledon, NJ, and four grandchildren; Cristy Testino and her husband Peter of Hamburg, NJ, Steven Hamilton and his fiancé Theresa Henry of Parsippany, NJ, Rebecca Hamilton of Bloomingdale, NJ, and Kaitlyn Alden of North Haledon, NJ. He was predeceased by his sister Joyce of Phoenix, AZ in 2005, and by his brother Al of Spring Valley, NY, in 1996.
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