Becker-Rabon Funeral Home
Graveside Memorial Service for Charles Oran "Chuck" Stearns will be at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, June 23, 2022 at Fairlawn Cemetery, Snyder, Oklahoma.
Burial with full military honors will be under the direction of Becker-Rabon Funeral Home of Snyder.
Charles Oran "Chuck" Stearns, 92, passed away on May 28, 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was born November 17, 1929 in Hillside, Colorado. As a baby, the family moved to Tillman County, Oklahoma. He graduated from Laing High School in 1947 and received his Master's Degree in 1957 from the University of Northern Colorado after an interruption serving as an officer in the United States Air Force. During his Air Force career he met his wife Lois of 69 years who survives him, as well as two sons Mark (Nancy) and Charles O. Stearns III, nieces, Cheri, Laurie and Christy and a nephew Eddie. While serving in the Air Force, he was in the lead plane and lead navigator transporting French Paratroopers into Viet Nam in operation "Bali Hai", the first round the world trip for a C-124 cargo plane. Other significant tasks were ferrying an atom bomb across country and flying supplies and equipment for construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) line in Alaska. He was a member of the Toastmasters International during his time in the Air Force. During 1957-59 he taught math, science and coached at Friendship High School. In 1959 he attended the University of Kansas for post graduate work in mathematics under a stipend from the National Science Foundation. In 1960 he became an employee in the Radio Division of the National Bureau of Standards in Boulder, Colorado as a researcher in antenna/antenna arrays. His work was used to predict radio communications during NASA manned space flights. School year 1963-64 he received a Department of Commerce Grant for post graduate electrical engineering at the University of Illinois. In 1965 he transferred to Ball Aerospace where he produced software for the complete thermo analysis of their Orbiting Solar Observatory. In 1967 he became the staff mathematician to the Director of Science Laboratories in NASA. In 1980 he joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) where he managed several projects and supported unmanned spacecraft development such as Galileo and Cassini. In 1995 he retired from JPL as a Technical Manager. During his career he published many papers in professional journals as well as presenting papers at professional meetings. He is a Life Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). In Boulder, Colorado, he was a member, deacon, and high school Sunday school teacher at the First Christian Church, he was elected President of the Flatirons Kiwanis Club, which was declined due to a move to California, and was a member of the Flatirons Country Club. He was a member of the Athenaeum at Caltech, La Canada Flintridge Tournament of Roses Association, Pasadena Fly Casters Club while in California and the Canyon Club at Four Hills in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Throughout the years he enjoyed fishing, hunting in Alaska, camping, horse shows, car shows, and bowling with his family.
In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Fairlawn Cemetery Association, PO Box 185, Snyder, Oklahoma 73566.
Sympathy cards may be sent to the family at www.beckerfuneral.com
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