Charles A. "Chuck" Hollis

1938 - 2023

October 15, 1938 - October 2, 2023 Charles "Chuck" Alvin Hollis III was born to Regina and Charles Alvin Hollis on Oct. 15, 1938, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His love of the outdoors and animals started with his early life on a farm where he raised and sold produce and chicken eggs, thus earning him the hated nickname Chicken Charlie. During this time, he had several pets, including sheep, dogs, chickens, a nine-year-old duck, and a pheasant he captured and put in the chicken pen. At least until he rubbed its head bald petting it and was forced to release it. He also attempted to befriend a bear at the local dump by feeding it marshmallows. (Both he and the bear survived.) A short friendship with a raccoon ended rather abruptly when he introduced it to the local teenage life at a diner, both Chuck and the raccoon being thrown out on their ears by the diner's owner.

After high school, Charles attended Duquesne University where he earned a bachelor's in biology, Not satisfied with the local wildlife, he traveled to Nigeria as part of Catholic Missions to harass snakes, crocodiles, cheetahs, and eventually a missionary nurse named Claudette, who owned a pet monkey, who he convinced to marry him. (The nurse, not the monkey.) They returned to the U.S. and married in 1963. Charles returned to school and earned a Ph.D. in forestry from Syracuse University. During his time there, he not only studied living plants, but was recognized for creating the school's only known plastic forest at the center of the Environmental Sciences quad.

After graduation, Charles secured a teaching position with the University of Florida in their School of Forestry. During his tenure there, Charles performed a variety of groundbreaking research. However, his greatest accomplishment was convincing visiting Russian dignitaries that he had created a super plant growth serum. (The details are still classified.) Tiring of university red tape, Charles accepted a research position with International Paper in 1981, which he stayed with until he retired in 1999. He spent most of his career with IP, wandering the woods and occasionally getting acquainted with a six-pack or three.

After retirement, Charles and Claudette moved to Fredericksburg, Texas. There he stayed busy with his consulting business, volunteering, woodworking, a greenhouse full of orchids and succulents, and an ongoing battle with gophers in the yard.

Charles was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Regina Hollis; and his beloved wife of 58 years, Claudette. He is survived by his three children - Thomas Hollis (wife Robin), Christine Bius (husband Jonathan), and Lisa Hollis Brown (husband David); five grandchildren - Robert Bius (wife Danielle), Melissa Bius, Sophia Hollis, Henry Hollis, and Alexander Brown; two great-grandchildren - Benjamin Bius and James Bius; four sisters - Judy, Marie, Anne, Margret Mary, one brother Thomas; and his second wife, Julie.