Charles I. Pierce, 97, of Moline, died Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 at Silver Cross Nursing Center, Rock Island.

A memorial service will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016 at Trinity Lutheran Church, Moline.  A gathering celebrating Charlie's life will follow at 4 pm at the Outing Club, Davenport.  Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory, Rock Island is assisting the family.  Memorials may be made to Augustana College, the Quad City Symphony or to the Rock Island County Historical Society.

Charles Ira Pierce was born on August 3, 1919, the only child of Mae and Ira Pierce.  His father died when he was 18 months old.  Charlie grew up living with his mother and grandparents on a farm in Port Byron.  Charlie's grandparents, born in the 1860's, were somewhat old fashioned.  As a child, Charlie was expected to follow the traditional "children should be seen but not heard" rule at the dinner table!  Charlie attended a one room country school for grades 1-8.  There were 22 kids in the entire school of 8 grades!  He graduated from United Township High School, and later from Tri-State College in Angola, Indiana, with a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Immediately after graduation, Charlie went to work in the Engineering Department of Deere and Company and worked there from 1942 until his retirement in 1986.

Charlie married Peggy Bishop in 1946 at the Augustana College Chapel in Rock Island.  Peggy and Charlie met on a double date.  They quickly found that they preferred each other to the dates they had shown up with!  After 20 years of marriage, Charlie and Peggy were blessed with one child, Ann.  She lives in Irvine, California, with her husband and four children.

Charlie and Peggy built their first home in the orchard of the farm on which he grew up in Port Byron.  Charlie designed the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired home, and he and Peggy built it themselves, with weekend help from family members and friends.  The only thing they did not do for themselves was dig the foundation!  In 1967, when their daughter was born, they moved to Moline, and built the house in which they have lived for the past 45 years.

Charlie always loved the out-of-doors.  He and Peggy loved to hike, ski, rock climb, camp, canoe, and bike.   Charlie joined the Black Hawk Hiking Club in the early 1940's, succeeding John Hauberg as president in 1955.  He and Peggy were very active with the club, going on many of the club's "Big Hike's" in the western United States.  In the 1940's and 50's, getting to the trailhead was an adventure in itself.  Hiking Club members rode in the back of an open truck, sitting on bedrolls with bandanas covering their faces to protect them from thick dust.  In those early years there were no interstate highways in the US, so the trucks bounced over dirt or gravel roads for days to get to their destination.

Charlie fell in love with rock climbing on Labor Day weekend 1957, while hiking at Devil's Lake, Wisconsin.  Charlie and Peggy joined the Chicago Mountaineering club, and spent countless weekends climbing at the lake with their good friends.  Charlie became a Rope Leader with the club in 1959.  He particularly enjoyed taking new climbers out to introduce them to the joys of his favorite sport.  Charlie and Peggy went on many rock climbing expeditions over the years, including snow and ice climbing.  One of Charlie's favorite climbs was Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  Charlie and Peggy also climbed in Europe, scaling the Matterhorn, among other peaks in the Alps.  Charlie enjoyed climbing well into his 80's.

Charlie loved to ski.  Frustrated by the lack of ski slopes in the Quad-City area, Charlie built one of his own.  In the 1950's, Charlie built a rope tow on Hampton Hill in Hampton, Ill where members of the Mississippi Valley Ski Club enjoyed weekend runs.  Over the course of more than 50 years as a skiing enthusiast Charlie skied in Switzerland, Austria and Germany in addition to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Wisconsin. Charlie passed his love of skiing to his daughter and grandchildren.  He was still skiing with his grandkids at age 91.

In his 60's and 70's, Charlie enjoyed more than a dozen week-long backpacking trips in the Grand Canyon. During those years he also did a lot of biking, particularly enjoying the fun and camaraderie of RAGBRAI.  Charlie also loved camping and canoeing in the Boundary Waters and shooting rapids on the Flambeau River in Wisconsin.

Charlie was very interested in history. In his later years he focused on the history of Rock Island County, where his great grandfather Henry Frels settled in 1840, more than 175 years ago.    Charlie joined the Rock Island County Historical Society in 1986, and has been very active in the Society, serving on the Board of Directors as a member of the Finance Committee.  Charlie has also been a Grant Writer for the Historical Society.

Charlie served as Treasurer of the Friends of the Davenport Museum of Art and on the Board of the Davenport Outing Club.  He also served on the Buildings and Grounds Committee of St. Katharine's/St. Mark's school for many years.

When not climbing, camping, skiing, or enjoying other outdoor adventures, Charlie enjoyed woodworking in his basement workshop.  Charlie was an amateur woodworker, carpenter, electrician, plumber, and jack of all trades.  As a child, his daughter used to say "My Daddy can fix ANYTHING!"  Which was true.

Additional memberships included: The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Quad Cities Bicycle Club, the Arsenal Country Club, the Mississippi Valley Ski Club, the Moline YMCA, Trinity Lutheran Church, the Contemporary Club, and the ACLU.

Charlie was fortunate to enjoy 30 years of retirement while active and in good health.  Until just 3 months before his death, Charlie was working out at the YMCA three times a week and had a very active social life.  During those 30 years Charlie and Peggy traveled a great deal.  By the age of 97, Charlie had traveled to all 50 states, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, Russia, Canada, Peru, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, all over Europe, England and Ireland, and to Brazil.  The only continent Charlie missed was Antarctica, which he would have loved to visit.

Charlie will be missed by his family and by a host of good friends, who loved him for his kind heart, love of adventure in the outdoors, his enthusiasm for social occasions, and for the wonderful stories he loved to tell.

Charlie is survived by his wife, Peggy (Bishop); daughter, Ann Wagner; son-in-law Steven Wagner; and four grandchildren, Katie, Emily, Charlie and Johnny Wagner.  He is also survived by his sisters-in-law, Joyce Bishop and Dee Horton (Bishop); and by his brother-in-law, Dr. Loren Horton.  Charlie's nieces and nephews in alphabetical order include, Sue Berry (Rursch), Dr. Jim Bishop, Craig Horton, Jan Marshall (Horton), Jane Rursch and Linda Sutliff (Bishop).

Charlie was preceded in death by his mother, Mae Frels Pierce; his father, Ira Nels Pierce; by his mother and father-in law, Hazel and Clarence Bishop; and by his brother and sister-in-law Dr. Joe Bishop and Dorothy Rursch (Bishop).

Online condolences may be left at wheelanpressly.com.