Charles "Tad" Hutchins

Charles Hutchins, long-time schoolteacher at Harper Creek Schools, passed away quietly in his sleep at Bronson Hospital in Battle Creek Friday evening, October 3rd.

The youngest of three sons to Charles and Beulah Hutchins, Charles Frazer Hutchins II was born March 2nd, 1941 in Yale, Michigan. His father, Charles I, worked as a security guard, and worked for Chrysler, which was building ball bearings for engines for the P51 Mustang fighter planes during World War II. The senior Charles' work led the family to move around a lot: the younger Charles spent most of his childhood living alternately either in Coldwater, Michigan or the area around Evergreen, Colorado.

Charles II, called "Tad" by his parents and older brothers, graduated from Coldwater High School in 1959. He was awarded a Regents Alumni scholarship to attend the University of Michigan, but opted instead to attend the prestigious private Kalamazoo College, eventually earning a Bachelor's degree in Biology. His father died shortly after he started college, but he found a friend and mentor in Bill Gillespie, the director of the Gillespie Funeral Home, where he took a job driving an ambulance to help pay for school. He apprenticed with Bill to become a mortician, and became a licensed cosmetologist in the process.

Charles took an additional job after college as the advertising director and business manager for the Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, also appearing as an actor in several plays. While he was there, he met Brenda Davis of Union City, who was playing "Rosie" in the all-Branch-County production of BYE BYE BIRDIE, and who then stayed on in summer stock before starting her Freshman year as a voice major at WMU. The two started dating, and Charlie proposed to Brenda that Christmas. They were married in June of 1966.

Charles' ambition in college had originally been to become a research physicist; later it was to become a field biologist. All that changed for him when a friend offered him a job teaching at Roosevelt Junior High School in Coldwater. He discovered that he had a flair for teaching and really liked it, and a year after he and Brenda moved into what had been her father's house on C. Drive North in Battle Creek, he found a job teaching science at Harper Creek Junior High School. He went back to school for his teacher certification, completing a Master's Degree in Education with a specialization in teaching science in April of 1968, just before their first child, Charles III, was born.

Charles taught Earth science and biology at the junior high in Harper Creek for close to a decade, then moved to the high school, where he taught physical science, biology, physics, and eventually math. All in all he spent 36 years in the Harper Creek School system--38 years of his life teaching in public school. He cared deeply about his students and lived for those moments when one of them would "get it." In the early years he became a crusader for adult education as well, and convinced friends he met who had never finished high school to go back to night school classes he taught so that they could get their diplomas.

Charles and Brenda raised three children, Charles ("Tad"), Beth and John, in the little house they had first moved into when they moved to Battle Creek, and onto which he almost single-handedly did all the carpentry, electrical, ductwork and plumbing to build an addition. They hired contractors to put in a foundation, frame the addition, and do the masonry for the fireplace, and friends helped with the roof, but all the rest of the work, except for pouring the floor at the beginning and laying carpet at the end, Charles did himself. As most men of his generation, he did all his own auto repair, too, dug the postholes and put up the fence, installed all the major appliances, and did any repairs that needed to be done around the house, up until the day when age and illness made it too difficult for him to do them.

A stroke suffered in 2011 greatly reduced his mobility, but did not stop him from having a full and vigorous intellectual life. He read both "Les Miserables" and "War and Peace" during the last year of his life.

Charles was preceded in death by both parents, his older brother Edwin, and his daughter Elizabeth. He is survived by his wife Brenda, his brother Robert, his sons Charles and John, his granddaughters Ashlynn and Katelin, and a double handful of nieces and nephews.

He will be remembered for his intelligence, his immense kindness, his infuriating stubbornness, and his unflagging sense of humor.

At the request of the family, they will receive friends 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., Thursday, October 9, 2014 at the Farley-Estes & Dowdle Funeral Home where a memorial service to celebrate his life will be held at 1:00 p.m., Thursday. In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to the Humane Society South Central Michigan. Personal messages for the family may be placed at www.farleyestesdowdle.com.