Charles (Chuck) Lincoln Folkers

Charles (Chuck) Lincoln Folkers died Nov. 14. He was 93.

Folkers was born July 12, 1930, in Ackley, Iowa. He attended Ackley public schools, graduating in 1948. He attended Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa, majoring in ceramic engineering. He enrolled in the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps with three summer training cruises. He graduated in 1953. Upon graduating, he was commissioned as an Ensign, U.S. Navy. He was ordered to San Diego for amphibious training and then served aboard the USS Renville, PA 227, and then the USS Iron Country, LST 840, for a total of three years, in the western Pacific and home-ported in San Diego and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was separated in September 1956. He worked for Kaiser Refractories in Milpitas, from 1956 to 1959. He also worked for a short period for Curtiss Wright near Santa Barbara. He started working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1960. He was a research engineer working with test specimens of radioactive materials. He later served as the facility engineer, plutonium building, for all safety and facility operations for 10 years. He retired in 1991. He continued to serve on a safety committee part-time for critical radioactive materials for three years after retiring.

Charles was predeceased by his first wife, Bettie Folkers, his parents Carl Henry Folkers and Helen Warren Folkers, and his sister Marjorie Martin. Chuck is survived by his wife of 34 years, Arlene Folkers, his daughters Susan Bernstein and Nancy Folkers (Peter Lemcke) and his stepchildren Ramona Foster (Harry Saez), Ingrid Nixon (Elvin), Roger Marsh (Cheryl Carlson), Marcia Webster (Doug Farrell) and Trina Lagier (Rick Dyer) and by his grandchildren Nikki Bernstein, Andrew Bernstein, Sophia Lemcke, Brittany Foster, Erin Gardner (Jonathan), Brigitte Lagier, and great-grandsons Jesse and Elias Medina.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Paws in Need, P.O. Box 3436, San Ramon, Ca. (www.paws-in-need.org) are requested.