Charles Edward Baxter

Charles E. Baxter passed away on June 3, 2014 at the age of 90. He was born on October 26, 1923 in Henrietta, Oklahoma to Joseph William Baxter and Alta Flora Baxter. A year later they moved back to Santa Rita, NM where his dad worked for Kennecott Copper. Charlie attended Sully Grade School from 1st through 6th Grade. When the mine closed the family moved to Turnerville and Charlie had to walk back to Santa Rita to attend the grade school. Soon after the family moved to Clifton, Arizona where his dad went to work for Phelps Dodge at a mine in Morenci. Charlie attended 7th & 8th grade in Clifton and went to Clifton High School for three years. At this time back in Santa Rita, the union won a lawsuit that required the mine to hire back all the fired employees and give them back pay. So the family moved back to Santa Rita where Charlie finished his last year of high school at Hurley High School in 1942. While in high school he played basketball and started making furniture during shop class. Woodworking became one of his passions for the rest of his life. After high school he hitchhiked back to the Clifton-Morenci area and got a job driving trucks for Phelps Dodge and working on a water pipeline for the town of Morenci. After he saved enough money he hitchhiked to Albuquerque where he registered at the University of New Mexico in August 1942 majoring in architectural design. He also joined the Naval ROTC program and was sworn into the US Navy through the Naval Armory in Los Angeles, California. In December 1942 he and a friend decided that the war was passing them by so they decided to join the regular navy and ended up in boot camp in San Diego. After boot camp he attended and graduated from machinist school and was sent to Tacoma, Washington for a detail of commissioning small CBE aircraft carriers. As a ship was finished being built, they would commission them, put them into service, and take them out to sea for a two-week shakedown cruise. Then they delivered them to Vancouver, BC. He did this for several months and was then assigned to an escort carrier, the USS Midway, for escort duty in the South Pacific. When the navy built a new super carrier and named it the USS Midway, his escort carrier’s name was changed to the USS St. Low. He worked as a machinist in the engine room on the USS St. Lowe. After the USS St. Lower sunk, he was transferred to the escort carrier, the USS Kitkun Bay, serving as convoy for many ships in the Phillipine Islands. His carrier was credited with sinking several Japanese warships at this time. In June 1945, Charlie married his high school girlfriend, Harriet Frank, at the St. Francis Hotel in Phoenix. Following his discharge from the navy in November 1945 they moved back to Albuquerque where Charlie resumed classes at UNM. In June 1947 a summer job at Standard Oil of Texas turned into a full time job as he worked his way up in the company washing and cleaning barrels, driving delivery gas trucks, and doing office accounting. A daughter, Susan was born in 1951 and son, Jonathan Paul, in 1953. In 1955 Charlie was promoted and moved to El Paso, Texas, where his new job involved engineering. In 1963 he was transferred back to Albuquerque as a field and lubricant engineer servicing industrial accounts in the New Mexico, Texas, Southern Colorado, and Northern Arizona. Throughout all of these years, Charlie continued to work on building and remodeling projects, specializing in anything having to do with wood. In 1973 Harriet passed away. Charlie married Emily Matkovich Moberg in Oct. 1975. He retired from Standard Oil in 1981 and in 1983 they moved to Prescott, AZ to be near Emily’s daughter, Sherry Baca, and family. Charlie’s dream was to build his own house, so together they built their retirement home with a combined garage and workshop near Granite Mountain. During retirement, Charlie continued crafting wood projects for family, friends, and clients. Another of his passions was traveling across the United States with Emily in their various RV’s. They spent over 20 years traveling this way. Emily passed away in 2005. Charlie was a member of the Prescott Elks Club #330 and very active in the organization. He was an Elks member for 50 years. He oversaw many of the expansion and remodeling projects for this lodge. The Baxter Room at the lodge is named after him. Charlie was instrumental in helping get “Bill” the Elk Statue made of copper relocated back to the top of the Elks Theater in Prescott. “Bill” was stored in Charlie’s workshop until it was ready to be remounted in 2006. Charlie also designed and built the Math Trophy Cases at Prescott High School and the Wall Display Case for the Remodeled Elks Theater in downtown Prescott. He was most proud of the dollhouse and doll furniture he created that won Best of Show at the Yavapai County Fair. One of his most memorable experiences was traveling with Honor Flight Arizona to Washington, D.C. with several other World War II Veterans to visit the World War II Memorial there. He was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters Wilma Hauser and Joanna Reeves, his first wife, Harriet Frank Baxter, and his second wife, Emily Matkovich Moberg Baxter. He is survived by his sister Glorietta Alvernaz (Bob); his daughter Susan Baxter Carbine (Art); his son Jonathan Paul Baxter (Rachael); his step-daughter Sherry Baca (Ed); grandkids: Deanna Howard, Elaine Jameson, Tara Carbine, Aaron Carbine, Melissa Baxter, Kaylee Baxter, Charlie Baxter; step-grandkids: Jamie Hinton and Jennifer Baca; great-grandkids: Lauren, Lindsey, Landon and Luke Howard, Steven and Megan Lewis; Adrien, Alice, and Cyrus Carbine, and Natasha Hinton. Charlie had a half brother and half sister from his mother’s previous marriage: Gilbert Brooks and Emilene Brooks. Emilene’s married name was Zobel and she passed away at the age of about 40. Charlie met Gilbert once around 1936 but then lost contact.