Charles D. Wilder's Obituary
Chuck was 75 on October 6, 2003. Born in Tulsa in 1928, he grew up along the woods of the Arkansas River at 71st and Peoria and attended school in Jenks. He always loved to hunt small game, and fish for the big ones. He played sports-football, golf, and track, football probably being his favorite. He won KVOO’s “Player of The Week” at least once and was captain of the Jenks football team. Chuck always said it takes less time to “do it right the first time” than explain later why you messed up while trying to fix it. He married my mom in December 1950 while working in Baytown just east of Houston, Texas. Together, they started a family on October 4, 1951 with their first boy, Bobby. On April 5, 1956, they had me, Billy, and their last boy, Kenny, came along January 15, 1964. With three boys plus Dad, Mom had to be quite a coordinator at everything, because all three of us were in sports year round. On top of this, Chuckster always got involved, usually as assistant coach, in baseball, football and homework. Having grown up on a farm with three brothers and one sister, Chuck loved to garden, but he was always looking for new things to do. He loved to photograph and was already taking tons of pictures before he and Mom had their first child. Having a full time day job as a machinist and being something of an engineer, he always had his mind and hands busy building something or making something. He worked with silver and semi-precious stones, fashioning them into rings, necklaces, buckles, soldering, cutting and polishing them to a beautiful finish. He made cypress tables and clocks, some very large, that took weeks of grinding and polishing to prepare for the polyurethane finish that he painstakingly babysat with his propane torch to pop any air bubbles that would arise from the wood and possibly flaw his masterpiece. Although he put a lot of labor into his creations, he enjoyed these hobbies for relaxation. In the early 1960’s, his hours of practice and study paid off, and he became a part-time professional photographer, with jobs ranging from weddings, football, baseball, and rodeo pictures to press coverage for Miss Tulsa and Miss Oklahoma pageants. He took many group photos for Broken Arrow schools’ annuals, mostly team pictures and Junior High and High School. He loved people immensely and took individual picture orders from each kid’s parents or grandparent, always managing to keep everyone happy. Imagine, if you will, taking someone’s once-in-a-lifetime wedding pictures-no problem for Chuck. He always did it right the first time. I love my folks forever. Bill C. Wilder
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