Charles (Chuck) Schulte

Charles (Chuck) Schulte was born on September 12, 1941, to Tony and Thelma (Huffington) Schulte and spent most of his childhood on the family farm ten miles east of Conway Springs, Kansas. He attended a one-room grade school in Riverdale and graduated from Conway Springs High School in 1959. The summer after graduation, before leaving for a summer of custom combining with his dad, members of the Dugan family and others, Chuck met and fell in love with John and Rose Dugan’s daughter, Alice Kay. Chuck and Alice married on October 20, 1962. In 1961, Chuck attended computer courses at night before starting a 40-year career with Southwestern Bell. His work took his and Alice’s young family to several small towns in Kansas before settling in Wichita in 1969. He worked as a switchman and logged hundreds of overtime and double time hours during the years of “cutovers” when Southwestern Bell was upgrading its systems. Phone calls in the middle of the night were regular occurrences in the Schulte household, particularly during thunderstorms, when Chuck was called to fix a service outage. His technical skills and expertise were highly regarded, and he earned the reputation of being the first and only person who needed to be called to solve a problem. He was a man of remarkable natural intelligence, yet too humble to think there was anything remarkable about himself. After retirement, Chuck drove farm equipment for Dugan Farm Management and was delighted by the luxury of a closed cab with air conditioning and GPS compared to the farm equipment of his youth. He enjoyed farm work and had a lot of fun with his younger co-workers, many of them relatives.Chuck was an accomplished trapshooter and was a member of the ATA and KTA trapshooters associations. He was a KTA champion many times. He and Alice spent several winters in the Tucson area where he continued to compete in the sport, and they made a number of close friends from all over the country.Chuck valued privacy - his and yours - and regarded other people’s life choices as none of his business. He was a quiet man who respected the work of others. If you could drive a nail straight, back a trailer into position in one go, or solve a complicated engineering problem, you were held in high esteem. He was also one to always graciously make sure your drink was filled. As well as being a meticulous worker, he is remembered as a devoted husband, a strict and loving father, a responsible big brother, a playful uncle and grandfather, and the source of many funny and original sayings - all unprintable, all to be endlessly quoted by his children and grandchildren.He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Theron Schulte. His brother, Don (Cathy, deceased) Schulte passed away two days after Chuck. Survived by his wife, Alice Dugan Schulte; children, Sharon (Andy) Brolin, Daniel (Mary Giovanni) Schulte, Kathleen Schulte; grandchildren, Rachael Brolin, Jack Brolin, Zane Brolin, Madalyn Schulte, Amelia Schulte, Briana Schulte; brothers, Tom (Nancy) Schulte; sister, Ann (LeRoy, deceased) Ast. In lieu of flowers, memorials have been established with: Grace Cottage, 531 N. Crestline Street, Wichita, KS 67212; Choice Hospice, 1608 E. Lewis St., Suite 100, Wichita, KS 67211; and Church of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 18218 W. Highway 54, Goddard, KS 67052.Funeral Mass Wednesday, October 5th, 4:00 p.m. Church of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, 18218 W. Highway 54, Goddard.Downing & Lahey Mortuary - West Chapel. Share tributes online at: www.dlwichita.com.