Chuck Epton

It is with great sadness and love that we mourn the death of Charles Lee Epton, aged 76. Chuck died peacefully at home in Bellingham, Washington, on August 1, 2022, his wife Sara by his side. He died of complications related to vascular dementia. Chuck was born December 26, 1945, in Kelso, Washington to Elliott C. and Vivian H. (née Lee) Epton. He graduated from Mark Morris High School in Longview, Washington in 1964. At twelve years old in seventh grade, his friends called him "Charles Atlas" because he seemed as strong as the famous muscle man. As a young teen he excelled at football, track, baseball, and wrestling, continuing as a star varsity wrestler all three years of high school. At about age 13, Chuck became a passionate reader and precocious thinker. In high school he even attended night classes in philosophy and psychology at Portland State. Chuck married Karen Dennison of Seattle in June of 1965 and began studies at the University of Washington in the fall of that year. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude in 1968 with a BA in philosophy and a minor in psychology. An MA in philosophy followed in 1969. During his time at the UW, he also answered help calls for the Seattle Crisis Clinic. In the fall of 1969 Chuck began teaching courses in philosophy, logic, and psychology at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington, the start of a 43-year academic career. On the first day of his first class, he sat at a desk at the back of the room and pretended to be a student until it was clear the professor was late. He then stood up and introduced himself. That was Chuck — he loved to amuse people with playful little surprises, and he was known for it throughout his life, inside and outside the classroom. The new instructor brought unexpected excitement to Clark when he introduced a controversial grading method that the college opposed but the students supported. "The Epton Controversy" and its student demonstrations rocked the school and made headlines in Vancouver's daily newspaper, The Columbian, in the spring of 1970. The rest of his long career at Clark lacked the fireworks of his first year but proved satisfying and rewarding to Chuck — also to his students, to hear them tell it. Student comments on Rate My Professors show that though his classes weren't easy, he was popular. Most thought he was a great teacher, helpful and approachable, "bright as a light," with some appreciating the "strange" or even "gory" examples he occasionally used to illustrate points and make them memorable. In the 1970s his interests expanded to include computer science, for which he created and taught courses. On December 30, 1982, he married Sara Spiegel. Throughout their 39-year marriage Chuck and Sara loved to talk about everything, laugh, and work together. They loved spending summers traveling, seeing relatives, camping, visiting bookstores, universities, and museums. They worked together fixing up their old Dutch Colonial house that always needed something and turned a spare bedroom into a study for his books, making bookshelves for every wall. In later years Chuck and Sara widened their travels to include teaching in China and trekking along the Indian-Nepali border. Chuck especially loved their travels to Turkey and Greece, where he could follow in the footsteps of the old philosophers with whom he spent so many years. Chuck is remembered fondly by his oldest friends and colleagues as "a genuine gentleman of the first order" — "brave," with a "brilliant and eclectic mind" and "kindness and goodwill to all" — "whose "quiet ways were a perfect complement to his intense and passionate spirit." He is preceded in death by his parents, his older brother William (Bill) Epton, his former wife Karen Dennison Kachurowski, and nieces Julie and Jennifer. Chuck is survived by his wife Sara and children: Shawn (Sarah) of Juneau, Alaska; Tomara, Wes (Launi), Laura and Sachie, all of Vancouver; Segan (Nathan) of Bellingham; grandchildren Alyssa, Ellie, Ian, Ashton, Nadia and Avery; and nephew Chris of Anchorage, Alaska. "We will all now be the keepers of the memories."