Charles Hall, Sr.

Canton - Charles Roy Hall, Sr., age 76, passed away the morning of October 31, 2017 from several health complications.

A native of Haywood County, he was the son of the late Charlie and Willie Mae Hall. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, Ralph Hall and daughter-in-law, Cathy Ann Hall. Charles is survived by his wife of 55 years, Kristine Hall; two sons Charles Roy Hall, Jr. and wife, MiChal, of College Station, TX and David Preston Hall of St. George, Utah; a daughter, Patricia Hall Hayner and husband, Joe, of Simpsonville, SC; two sisters, Mary Hall Farley and Anna Jean Brock; a step-brother Charlie Hall of Clyde; 10 grandchildren; 10 great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Charles went to Clyde High School and married Kristine in 1962. After a short stint at a mattress factory in Hazelwood, he became a millwright at Champion International Paper Mill and served in that capacity for 39 years. He appreciated the co-workers from Champion that became his friends and of special note is Mary Hendrie of Canton, NC who in many ways is now a member of the family. His time at Champion helped him hone uncanny mechanical skills but he also demonstrated proficiency in carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, welding, and masonry. Give him a pad of graph paper and a mechanical pencil and he could dream up a project as well as any engineer. But give him a computer and, well, let's just say he could have been a crash tester at Microsoft.

Charles and Kristine always had a vegetable garden, grew strawberries and Christmas trees "commercially" for a while but they also started a nursery business that was known as Blue Ridge Nursery. He and Kris (as he called her) figured out how to propagate and grow many different plants through trial and error and, of course, built and/or maintained all of the equipment and hoop-houses used in the operation. While the business was eventually sold, it was a family enterprise that was a successful sideline business for nearly two decades. You can still drive by many homes and businesses in western NC that have some of the nursery's plants still thriving in their landscapes!

Charles' main hobbies included fly fishing, woodturning, and making knives. He enjoyed working with his hands, but particularly enjoyed using any type of machinery. He collected tractors (and implements, of course), back-hoes, dump trucks and he was often observed tooling around in his renovated excavator moving dirt that "just needed tweaking a bit." He was also known for reengineering old equipment just because "they didn't design this thing right." He collected every size of screw, nut, bolt, and fastener known to man and left a compilation of tools that Harbor Freight would be hard-pressed to match.

An introvert by nature, he was not big on small talk or crowds, but he could sure tell a story or two when you got him by himself...in more detail than you probably wanted...but fascinating nonetheless. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy that had the hand shake of a pipefitter and always said what he meant and meant what he said. Some of the favorite memories of his family included the harrowing experience of jumping the creek in the pasture in the dune buggy, his tale of smoking a cigar when he was four years old, family trips to the beach, camping or fishing, his addiction to Mountain Dew, his possible addiction to Karo syrup and biscuits, his short stint at coaching football, collectively building the stone fireplace and chimney one summer, the infamous speed-rocket go cart, sculpturing arrowheads, his packrat-like passion for collecting just about everything, and his seeming obsession with VW Beetles!

While his body gave out and he's no longer with us, he accomplished a great deal with his time here on earth, and we will cherish the memories of "the good times" we had with him.

Memorial services will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2017 at Plains United Methodist Church with Reverend Zach Christy and Reverend Kenneth Rhinehart officiating. The family will receive friends from 2:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. prior to the services at the church.

Memorials may be made to FIRST Robotics, FIRST Finance, 200 Bedford Street, Manchester, NH 03101. FIRST Robotics combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology for high school students.

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