Charles Ferdinand Reichmuth, age 67, left his body November 24, 1996 at his home in Cedar City as a result of cancer and related medical treatments.
He was born in Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin, but spent his childhood in neighboring Ripon, family home for five generations. Moved to the San Fernando Valley, Calif. in 1943 where he finished high school and one year at UCLA, while working as a restauranteer, magician, musician, landscape gardener and aircraft mechanic; became a search and rescue pilot in the Civil Air Patrol with the then well-known Hollywood Squadron and enlisted in the Naval Reserve, all as a teenager.He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1952 with a BS degree in marine engineering, and a commission in the regular U.S. Air Force. He earned BS degrees in Mechanical and Aeronautical engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology an MBA degree at the Univ. of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and later worked towards a doctorate in Outdoor Recreation at Utah State Univ. His Air Force career was in the fields of Research and Development and Technical Intelligence, beginning with aircraft and propulsion, and later moving into the space and missile systems arena. He had overseas duty in Europe and the Middle East in the more discrete areas of espionage, and in Viet Nam in Headquarters 7th Air Force. He also had two tours of duty in the Pentagon before retiring in 1976 as a Lt. Colonel from Hill A.F.B., Utah. In retirement, he became involved in outdoor recreation and tourism, planning, zoning, land management and wilderness issues as a volunteer, and became a very active member of the Wasatch Mountain Club.
He acquired an extremely viral and rare form of cancer in 1983 and was given a life expectancy of less than two years. In early 1986, he was introduced into the realm of metaphysics, "New Age" concepts and many of its peripheral benefits, acquiring several states of spiritual enlightenment. By the end of 1987, he felt that he had experienced a greater life in the previous two years than he had in his first 55 years. This lifestyle allowed him to live with his cancer for nearly 13 years, not in a battle courageous, but with friendly acceptance, as on might with freckles, along with a "code" of: right attitude; proper died, exercise and rest; minimal stress and strain; accompanied by meditation and many metaphysical exercises such as creative visualization. He was able to deny pain, without medication, until his last few days when he became too tired to keep on trying. Though he could live with the cancer, his difficulty was coping with the accumulation of bodily effects that were exacted as a result of the various associated medical treatments in 1984 and 1985.
He is survived by a daughter, Lee Anne Reichmuth, Ontario, Calif.; a son, Eric Dana Reichmuth, Moscow, Idaho; a daughter, Susan Amy Reichmuth, Lynnwood, Wash.; a brother, Daniel West Reichmuth in San Manuel, Ariz.; a sister, Carrie Lynn Carpenter in Reseda, Calif. and many friends in the Salt Lake Valley.
He requested there be no services or formalities and that his ashes be scattered from the air over one of his favorite hiking areas in Southern Utah.
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