Charles Hill Weidinger was born on 28 September 1912 at North Lewisburg, Champaign County, Ohio. He was the son of Howard and Kitturiah Hill Weidinger. A review of the biography of Howard Weidinger will reveal that Charles' father passed away in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 23 October 1912, when little Charles was 26 days old. At his birth, Charles and his mother were living with Kitturiah's parents, Charles Fremont and Zetta Stinson Hill, in North Lewisburg, where Mr. Hill was superintendent of the local school.

Charles and his older brother, John Franklin Weidinger, grew up together, though they lived in several locations where Mr. Hill's vocation took him. These locations included Rushylvania, Tarlton, and the old town of Osborne, which, after the great flood of 1913, combined on higher ground with Fairfield and became Fairborn. My father's truly formative years were spent in the small town of Huntsville, in Logan County, Ohio, where he graduated valedictorian of his high school class in June 1930. His first gainful employment was as a driver, delivering new Reo automobiles from a plant in Toledo to central Ohio destinations. He mentioned there were no such things as drivers licenses at the time.

Having lost her beloved husband Howard, Charles' mother, Kitturiah, was a tough task master. She would not allow Charles to accept a full scholarship in tennis to Wittenberg College, nor a full scholarship to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, arranged by then Ohio Governor "Vic" Donahay. As a result, in April 1931, he eloped to Adrian, Michigan, where he married Florence Marie Jackson, of Cherokee, near Huntsville, Ohio. Later that year, Charles and Marie moved to Circleville, Pickaway County, where he began a series of careers, first as a clerk in a local G. C. Murphy 5 and 10 cent store. In 1932, he found steady work as a salesman for Mr. Charles H. Mack, owner of a local shoe store. Mr. Mack became a dear friend and almost patriarchal benefactor to the young Weidinger family, introducing us to Trinity Lutheran Church, where I was christened in October 1932.

Later years saw a brief career for Charles as a traveling salesman for Roberts, Johnson, and Rand Shoe Company. This career caused family moves from Circleville to Bellefountaine and Loudonville due to changes in his assigned areas. In 1942, after a brief return to Circleville, Charles was employed as a production line parts expediter by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation in Columbus, and the family resided briefly at Harbor Hills, at Buckeye Lake, near Hebron, Ohio. In 1943, the family moved to Worthington, Ohio, to be closer to the Curtiss-Wright Plant.

At the end of World War II, a job offer by Mr. Charles H. Griesinger at his shoe store in Medina, Ohio, resulted in another move which lasted until the summer of 1949. In July 1949, the family returned to Circleville, and Charles opened an insurance agency for Sun Life Assurance of Canada. In 1955, lack of success lured Charles to seek re-employment with Curtiss-Wright's successor in Columbus, North American Aviation, Inc. This segment of his careers proved most successful, and Charles retired in 1976 from Rockwell International as Deputy Contracts Administrator for Trainer and Missile Systems.

For some years following his retirement, Charles and Marie Weidinger resided in Minerva Park in northeast Columbus, then moved to a retirement community in Bradenton, Florida. In 1986, Marie was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and Charles was forced to return her to Columbus, where Marie died on 12 February 1997 at First Community Village in west Columbus. On Christmas Day 1996, I discovered my father had suffered a slight stroke at his condominium near us in east Columbus. He was then taken into permanent residence at First Community Health Center. While there, the implantation of a pacemaker caused a severe stroke, and Charles died on 10 February 1998. Charles and Marie Weidinger are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens on East Broad Street in Columbus, once again together forever after nearly 67 years of marriage.