Chuck Witte

1929 - 2023

News story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

Chuck Witte, who became a community mainstay as longtime owner of a Whitehouse insurance agency, a volunteer fire department leader, and golf league founder, died Tuesday at home in Whitehouse. He was 93.

He had prostate cancer, his family said.

Mr. Witte became owner in 1959 of A-W Insurance, offering auto, home, and farm policies. The initials stood for Allion - after the first owner, Harley Allion - and Witte. But with the formation several years earlier of the Anthony Wayne school district, the A-W insurance agency "fit right in, here in Whitehouse," his daughter Jenni Yoder said on Wednesday. "And he was a local boy. He knew a lot of people."

His friendliness and dependability contributed to his success, his wife, Janis, said.

"He was very interested in the community," she said.

He easily spoke with others and could befriend most, said his son Jack Witte, who worked with him for years and succeeded him as owner of A-W insurance. He liked to needle others, too, whether he'd known them for decades or they'd just met.

"That was a good salesman's trait. He could talk to people," the younger Mr. Witte said. "Some of them became friends and some of them became customers. Some people didn't get him at first, and most people did. He was a happy guy."

Mrs. Yoder said: "He always had a sarcastic remark with a little smirk."

Through his example, "the four of us kids, we're all worker bees," she said. "He was fun loving, energetic, hard working."

Mr. Witte had been a 40-year Whitehouse volunteer firefighter and from 1970-89 was department president.

"If he was involved in something, he was involved in it," the younger Mr. Witte said.

Mr. Witte played into his 80s in the Waterville Golf League, which he helped found in 1957 and which his sons and grandsons take part in.

"He was so happy of that. He was so proud of that," the younger Mr. Witte said.

Mr. Witte was a Mason and a member for 70 years of the Grand Lodge of Ohio and of the American Legion post in Whitehouse. He'd also been active in the Anthony Wayne Athletic Boosters.

"In his younger years, he was the guy to come down the sled hill with you or ice skate with you," Mrs. Yoder said. "He was involved. I'm the oldest of four. My mom and dad I don't think he missed anything we were involved in."

He had a large garden, with fruit trees and a grape arbor, and shared the bounty with the neighborhood. For 21 years, until 2010, he and his wife spent winters on Maui in Hawaii, a practice that began when daughter Karla lived there.

Charles Frederick Witte was born Nov. 11, 1929, in Waterville, the only child of Mildred and Richard Witte. He was a 1947 graduate of the former Waterville High School, where he lettered in basketball, football, and baseball.

He attended Bowling Green State University for a term, but transferred to Miami University, which his future wife attended. He received a bachelor's degree in business in 1951 and was a member of Delta Upsilon Fraternity.

He was a veteran of the Ohio National Guard and served in the Korean War as a member of the Army Quartermaster Corps.

He began his career in sales, for the Central Ohio Paper Co. For another company, he traveled in Ohio and part of Pennsylvania selling nuts, bolts, and screws.

"He loved woodworking and was handy and could fix anything," Mrs. Yoder said.

Surviving are his wife, the former Janis Sullivan, whom he married Dec. 16, 1950; daughters Jenni Yoder and Karla Witte; sons Jack Witte and Kirk Witte; 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 1-4 p.m. Sunday at Hope United Methodist Church, Whitehouse, where a Whitehouse Fire Department bell service will begin at 4 p.m. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Monday in the church, with visitation after 10 a.m. Arrangements are by Peinert-Dunn Funeral Home, Whitehouse.

The family suggests tributes to Hope United Methodist Church; the Whitehouse Firefighters' Association; Whitehouse American Legion Post 384, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio.