Charles A. Leid

Charles A. “Charlie” Leid, 87, formerly of Denver, passed away on Saturday, January 17th, 2026, at Ephrata Manor. Born November 17, 1938, in Denver, he was the son of the late Alfred H. & Helen E. (Hoshauer) Leid.

Charlie was a lifetime member of Muddy Creek Lutheran Church, where he was the first baby baptized in the new Church building.

Graduate of Governor Mifflin High School (class of 1956). Began working at American Casualty Co., Reading, in Accounts Receivable department which utilized an IBM punched card system requiring manually filing and pulling of the IBM cards. Computer processing was developing in the late 1950's when the company planned to upgrade with a larger and faster computer, with the intent of computerizing the Accounts Receivable processing. Charlie was offered the opportunity to participate in the development of the system which would replace the punched card system with a magnetic tape-based system on the new computer. He then attended classes provided by IBM to learn computer programming for the new computer. Wrote the first Account Checking computer program for the company. Within several years, American Casualty merged with Continental National Insurance Co. of Chicago, Ill., to become CNA Insurance, and the Reading Office became a regional office. The much larger Chicago Home Office was deeply interested in using this Account Checking program as the basis for the entire CNA Insurance Accounts Receivable function. With the resources of the Chicago Home Office, enhancements were made to further develop this system, and it was eventually packaged for marketing to other insurance companies. Charlie participated with Chicago personnel to develop company-wide processing systems until the Regional Office Data Processing personnel were absorbed in the Chicago Home Office, in 1976. From 1976 until retirement, continued in Data Processing as Computer Programmer/Systems Analyst in Information Management Systems at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center (now Reading Health System).

Charlie’s love of music spanned his entire life, having studied piano and saxophone during school years, and being a member of the chorus, band, and orchestra during high school. He served the church in the church choir for more than 60 years. As he developed an interest in the organ, he taught himself to play, which led to being recruited to serve as organist and choir director by several churches, substituting for church organists when needed, and played the organ for many weddings and funerals. He became a regular attendee at organ concerts in Delaware, held annual tickets for the Fulton Theater, and regularly attended the American Music Theater to fuel his love of music and the arts. As a young boy, Charlie always made time to stand with his parents at their farmers’ market stand in Reading for many years. Charlie’s talents and love of the community and family will be deeply missed by all who knew him. Charles is survived by many cousins and friends.

A celebration of life service will take place on Saturday, January 24th at 2:00 p.m. at Muddy Creek Lutheran Church; 11 S Muddy Creek Rd, Denver, PA 17517. Charles’ final resting place will be at Muddy Creek Church Cemetery in Denver.

In lieu of flowers, contributions are appreciated to Muddy Creek Lutheran Church; 11 S Muddy Creek Rd, Denver, PA 17517.