Charles Marsh Stroder

Charles Marsh Stroder of Crane, Texas, passed away and went to join our Lord on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at the age of 97.   His was a life well-lived, as evidenced by the legacy he leaves behind - his wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and multitudes of friends and past students.  

Charles was born on December 8, 1926, in East Texas in his parents’ three-room farmhouse, located just south of Navarro, Texas.  He was the first and only child of Sam and Ethel Marie (Marsh) Stroder. By his own accord, he had an idyllic childhood playing and working on the farm and in his grandfather’s store, always surrounded by cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.   However, with the tough times of the depression, his father moved the family to take a “permanent” temporary job with an oil company in Lee’s Store, Texas, near Big Spring, in September 1935.  The following year Charles’s dad got a permanent job with Lion Oil Company, moving his family to an oil camp near Wink, Texas, in 1936.   Charles graduated from Wink High School in 1944.

He enrolled in Texas A&M University that summer, then left to enlist on his 18^th birthday in December, reporting immediately to basic training. While he was in route to participate in the invasion of Japan, Japan surrendered, and the fleet was diverted to the Philippines, where he was stationed for several months.  When his enlistment ended, he returned home to Wink, taking a job as a roustabout until the Fall of 1946, when he enrolled at Hardin Simmons University for a year.   The following year he transferred to Texas Tech University, where he graduated in May of 1951 with a degree in petroleum geology.

Charles was hired by Lion Oil Company and immediately moved to Corpus Christi, Texas.  In the Spring of 1952, Charles met a young high school English and journalism teacher, Evelyn Marie Rossler, whom he married later that year in November of 1952.    After several years working in the office, Charles needed a change.  So he earned his teaching credentials, and in the Fall of 1955 Charles and Evelyn moved to West Texas, taking a teaching job in Crane.  

Charles initially taught math and science at Crane High School, then moved to the junior high, where he taught earth science for the remainder of his career, retiring from teaching in 1988.  After retirement Charles stayed busy selling real estate, substitute teaching, and spending more time doing things for his church, where he served as a deacon.

In the Fall of 2021 Charles and Evelyn moved to an assisted living facility in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, near Sam and his family.  After a few “worry-free” years, Charles was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  His prayers, as well as the prayers of his friends and family, were answered and he went to see Jesus just two months later.  He will be greatly missed, but the family rests in the knowledge they will see him again one day in heaven.

Charles was preceded in death by his father and mother, Sam and Ethel (Marsh) Stroder.   He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Marie (Rossler) Stroder of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; three children and their spouses, Susan and Arden Lowery of Crane, Nancy and Bill Wilkinson of Model, Colorado, and Sam and Shannon Stroder of Edmond, Oklahoma. He also leaves behind seven grandchildren, Rebekah and Wade Hinkle, Sarah and Randy Cook, Ross and Kayla Lowery, Sydney Wilkinson, Samantha and Dustin Decker, Abbey and Connor Ratcliff, and Zachary and Mya Stroder. and 14 great-grandchildren.

Family visitation will be held at the Shaffer-Nichols Funeral Home on Friday, April 26, 2024, from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, at the First Baptist Church in Crane, Texas, with the burial following at the Crane Memorial Cemetery.   

If anyone wishes to make donations in his memory, the family would love for you to consider the High Sky Children’s Ranch, Cal Farley Boys Ranch, or the West Texas Boys Ranch.