Charles Ward Austin

Charlie was born November 5, 1932 in Seattle, Washington, the son of Carl Philip Austin and Mary Elizabeth “Ib” Hurlbut Austin. Charlie graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) in 1950. He spent his freshman year at Harvard before returning to Seattle to earn Bachelor’s, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in Mathematics from the University of Washington. Before starting his doctoral studies, Charlie served for three years in the U.S. Navy as an officer aboard the USS Boxer and the USS Midway, both aircraft carriers. After leaving active duty in 1958 he remained in the Naval Reserve for another 17 years before retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

As a first-year graduate student in 1954, Charlie taught an undergraduate math class in which a promising freshman, Carol Robinson, was enrolled. At the end of the semester, after she earned the highest grade in the class, he called to congratulate her and, incidentally, to ask her out on a movie date. With Charlie’s Naval service looming, they got engaged during spring semester and were married on June 10, 1955 at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Seattle. The young newlyweds honeymooned in San Francisco before Charlie shipped out with the Navy.

By the time Charlie completed his PhD in 1962 he and Carol had four young children while living in graduate student housing at UW. The young family then moved to Boulder, where Charlie had been hired as an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. Their final move was to Southern California in 1966, where Charlie had been hired as a tenured Associate Professor at California State College (now University), Long Beach. From 1967 to 1973 he chaired the math department and was promoted to full Professor in 1971. He later served the university as an Associate Dean and, after a return to the classroom in the 1980s, moved to the President’s Office, from which he retired in 1994 as an Associate Vice President.

Charlie and Carol settled in Garden Grove in 1967, raising their children in the home in which they lived for nearly 60 years. They were active members of St. Anselm of Canterbury Episcopal Church, where Charlie served as a lay reader, on the Vestry, and as a leader of the high school youth group. At the Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana since 2013, Charlie and Carol were active in the seniors’ group and volunteered in the church office.

In retirement, Charlie was an avid birdwatcher, developing a life list of over 2000 species identified in his travels with Carol. Together they visited all 50 states and 65 countries on five continents.

Charlie’s children and 8 grandchildren remember his sense of humor, his calm temperament, his love of baseball, literature, and the arts, his skill in sketching and watercolor, his way of simplifying complex math ideas, and his love for nature.

Charlie is survived by wife Carol; children Catherine Thiemann (Michael), John (Lauren Balderama), David (Karen Gulliver) and Tom (Kim Law); grandchildren Claire Thiemann, Andrew Austin, Evan Austin, Annabel Austin, Henry Thiemann, Graham Austin (Annaliese Johnson), Seth Austin, and Paul Thiemann.

Preceding him in death are son Charles Ward Austin Jr, who died in infancy, parents Carl and Ib Austin, and brother Philip Austin.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, December 6 at 10:30 a.m., at the Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana. Interment will be in Rose Hills Memorial Park, Whittier.