In the back seat were his young cousins Tommy and David Cunningham and my little brother, Fabri.
Chuck's aunt, Ann Harding Cunningham, dated my father in the late 1970s, when we all lived in Wisconsin (Geneva and Madison). After Ann and my father broke up, I lost touch with Chuck and his family.
In recent years, once it became possible, I googled him every so often, but the closest I ever came to finding him online was a notice in a University of WI alumni magazine listing him as among the missing.
Last year at Christmas I finally found him---he had died the month before. I felt gutted, though I hadn't seen him since the 1980s.
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I am posting Chuck's newspaper obituary here (as a record for myself and for anyone else searching) because it is no longer available online:
Charles Stewart ("Chuck") Harding
"HARDING Charles ("Chuck") Stewart Harding, age 56, resident of Mobile, Alabama, died on Tuesday, November 15, 2011, after a brief illness.
"He was the eldest grandson of the late H. Stewart and Susan Tucker Cobb of Mobile. Chuck, the first son of the late Charles ("Bubba") Irwin Harding and Susan Cobb Harding of Mobile.
He was born on June 5, 1955, in Opelika, Alabama, while his parents were attending Auburn University.
"He moved with his parents to Gainesville and then to Jacksonville, Florida, where he enjoyed the beach, boats and Scuba diving with his three younger brothers.
He graduated from high school in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He attended Stanford University, then received his Bachelors degree in zoology and limnology in 1980 and his Masters degree in Water Resources Management in 1984 from the University of Wisconsin. He went on to receive an MBA in 1988 from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business. He was working on his Ph.D. in Business Strategy at the University of Wisconsin's Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, when he died.
"Chuck's career included positions as Senior Vice President of Product Management and Administration for Celtic Life Insurance Company and Vice President of Infocus Financial Group in Chicago, Illinois. He was also an Adjunct Professor of Management Analysis at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"Chuck had a love of words and learning and a joyous attitude toward life. He delighted in the many wonders of the world and he had a big heart with love for his family and friends, including the new friends he made everywhere he went.
"Chuck was preceded in death by his parents and his three brothers, David, Tucker and Marcus; his grandmother, Frances Davis Harding, grandparents Stewart and Susan Cobb and cousin, William Tucker Cobb.
"Chuck is survived by his wife, Barbara Morin and stepdaughter, Rebekah Morin, his aunt, Ann Harding Woodward (Tom) and his uncle, H. Stewart Cobb, Jr. (Mary Jane); cousins, Tom and David Cunningham and Stewart and Mitchell Cobb, as well as by two wonderful Corgis, Belle and Alfie.
The Witness to the Resurrection service for Chuck will be held at Government Street Presbyterian Church on Saturday, November 19, 2011, at 1:00 p.m. The family will receive friends 30 minutes prior to the service, at the Church. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Government Street Presbyterian Church Urban Ministry."
