Charles “Chuck” John Beatty, 77, of Madison, AL, passed from this life on Monday, December 31, 2018 at Huntsville Hospital Hospice Family Care from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
He was the husband of Judy (Goetz) Beatty, his devoted wife of 31 years.
Born on May 3, 1941, in Punxsutawney, PA, he was the son of the late James R. and Martha Elizabeth (Stewart) Beatty.
Raised in Fairview, Bell Township, PA, he attended a one room school house for elementary school and graduated from Punxsutawney Area High School in 1959 where he was chief of the Stage Crew. His first job was as a paper boy for the Punxsutawney Spirit, and he was an active Boy Scout with his father as his scoutmaster. After he earned an AS in Electrical Technology from Pennsylvania State University-Dubois in 1961, he worked for the research laboratory at Stromberg-Carlson Corp in Rochester, NY on computer logic telephone switching systems. In 1965 he received his BS in Electrical Engineering from Tri-State College (Trine University), where he was a member of the honor society Tau Sigma Eta, and chairman of the student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Mr. Beatty worked for Goodyear Aerospace in Akron, OH where he developed memory drive circuitry for computers supporting space exploration. He moved to Binghamton, NY to work on flight training systems with CAE-Link for projects including the SkyLab space station, C-130 aircraft, F111 bomber, S-3A Viking anti-submarine jet, and the AH-64 Apache Helicopter. He later joined McDonnell Douglas/Boeing in Mesa, AZ and Huntsville, AL and retired from Boeing as an Engineer Scientist for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense project.
Mr. Beatty was proud to be the grandson of Harry Beatty, of one of the founders of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, and enjoyed celebrating the event each year with friends and family. In 1977, he was honored by the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club with the official title “Groundhog Ambassador”. Chuck also enjoyed playing golf and antiquing, but his true passion was woodworking, and he spent many happy hours in his “man cave” workshop.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his loving daughters Stacy (John) Benner and Gail (Keith) Dupont, as well has his cherished step-children Jim (RaeLynne) Hundley, Rebecca (Ray) Coury, and Mindy (Kevin) O’Brien, as well as 13 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. In addition to his parents, he is predeceased by his brothers James Ralston and William Carl.
No services are planned at this time. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in Chuck’s memory to the Michael J. Fox Foundation through the Chuck Beatty Legacy Page at https://www.michaeljfox.org/tribute
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