| Graduation Year | Class of 1974 |
| Date of Passing | May 03, 2020 |
| About | Charles A. Carpenter Jr. July 18, 1956 - May 3, 2020 Cleveland, Ohio | Age 63 Loving Husband, Father and Grandfather At Lakewood's Horace Mann Junior High in 1970, every interested boy could join the Purple Pups football team. But when they started handing out helmets, they ran out before they got to a last-place, skinny kid named Chuck Carpenter. So his dad bought him a close substitute at Uncle Bills. A set of free weights and some mom-made peanut-butter milkshakes later, and Charlie became a varsity starter who was All Lake Erie League—Offense AND Defense, and was also a starter in basketball, baseball, and track, and even got a full, four-year ride to college to play football! With the help of his mom's rebounding, Charlie could make nine out of ten free throw shots blindfolded. Every kid on the bench needs to hear the Charlie Carpenter story. Hollywood makes movies about underdogs like Charlie, and actors can only pretend to be the kind of faith-filled overcomer Charlie was and is. On Sunday, May 3rd, 63 yr. old Charlie was working in the yard with his wife Dana of 17 years and suddenly collapsed and died of heart failure. In addition to his much-beloved wife, Dana (nee Edman), Charlie is survived by his three sons, Charles III (Cassie), Brian, and Daniel, and a granddaughter Olivia (daughter of Charles III), his father, Charles A. Carpenter Sr., and his sister Kimberley Moore (Edward), brother Scott Carpenter (Nanette Yannuzzi), and sister Laura Nelson (Peter), as well as many nephews and nieces and seven great-nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his mother, Janet M. Carpenter (nee Kapl). Charlie became an LPN in a mid-life career change and became the favorite of his nursing home residents wherever he worked. He and his wife even prayed for his patients, and such was his deep and sincere care for them. He joined his wife Dana, an ordained EPC minister, in a long-running inner-city mission she began in 1995 —The Isaiah Project, volunteering tirelessly and working alongside her to bring the transforming power of the Gospel to inner-city youth. Charlie loved home projects. One of his first dates with Dana was fixing the plumbing in her apartment. (That's a keeper, right?) Last year Charlie and Dana bought a large, somewhat neglected home on Cleveland's west side and began transforming it. Charlie, true to his Carpenter genes, rebuilt the entire first floor and was starting on the second and attic levels when God called him home. Everything and everyone he touched was way better off when Charlie stepped in--even his house. Charlie was spontaneous, loving to hop in the car with Dana and just drive, go for hikes and antiquing, finding new places to eat. They loved Loudonville, where they spent their honeymoon and many wedding anniversaries. Dana and Charlie did everything together, side-by-side. A deeply sensitive man, even movies could make him cry. Dana told the family, "There is no one who loved me the way he did. |
