Charles Edmund Hendrix

Longtime Palisades resident Charles Hendrix died at his home of 47 years on Dec. 20, 2016, after a short illness.

“Chuck,” as he preferred to be called, was born in Columbia, Missouri, on March 14, 1924. He attended high school in Columbia and began his higher education at St. Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa, where he studied mathematics and physics.

As a member of the Enlisted Reserve Corps, he was called to active duty in the Army at the onset of World War ll. After basic training in California, he was assigned to scientific course work at the University of Pennsylvania as a member of the Special Engineer Detachment. From Philadelphia he was assigned to work on the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he met his future wife, Juliana (June) Opanchyk.

At the conclusion of the war, Chuck and June moved to Boston where he took work with Polaroid Corp. In 1951 he was recruited by the Navy to work as a civilian engineer at China Lake, a remote weapons testing facility in the Mojave Desert of California.

During these years, he was able to acquire a master’s degree and ultimately, a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from UCLA in 1962. Concurrently, he and June raised three children: Michael, Philip and Lisa, all of whom were born at China Lake.

After some years with the Navy, Chuck and his family relocated to Glendora, California, where he worked for Space General Corporation. From there, he continued his engineering career with Telluron, and finished off with 25 years at Hughes Aircraft, Space and Communication Division, in El Segundo, California.

After retirement from Hughes, Chuck enjoyed a variety of leisurely pursuits, which included photography, painting and reading. He is remembered by those who knew him as a kind, thoughtful and eternally curious fellow. He cared deeply about the state of the natural world, and all of the people and creatures who live upon it. He was devoted as a husband and father.

We three children will scatter the ashes of him and our mother in the Mojave Desert this spring when the wildflowers bloom.

We will miss him always.

“So I come to the end of my story. I worked, primarily in the defense establishment, for over 50 years. It was a respectable but unspectacular career. I made no great discoveries, amassed no fortunes, founded no new companies. But, by God, I had fun!” C.E.H. 2008