Charles "Chuck" Hyslop

Charles “Chuck” Hyslop, 78, a resident of Fergus Falls, died Tuesday, September 17, 2013, at PioneerCare in Fergus Falls.

Charles "Chuck" Hyslop was born in Fergus Falls in 1934, the first of the three sons of Robert and Katharine Hyslop. He graduated from Fergus Falls High School in 1952 and later the University of Minnesota after a stint in the US Army.

He married Patricia Hamlon in 1961, ran his own business and raised three children: Rob, Jen and Chris. After Pat's death, he found love again with Shirley Anderson. They married in 2007.

Chuck was a lifetime student and teacher of golf. He was a founding member of the Pebble Lake Golf Club's "Baloney League" with whom he played the game for 50 years. He plumbed the mechanics of the golf swing, spending uncounted hours on the practice range between grief and bliss, chasing the elusive draw. He could be heard saying, "This is the year I am going to quit," and "After 40 years I finally have it figured out," depending on the subtle arc at which the ball moved from right to left. He was a master of the short game, sending competitors into paroxysms of frustration with his ability to go up and down from anywhere.

Chuck was interested in people, not material things. The time it would have required to keep up stylish clothes, fancy cars and well kept yards he invested in genuine connections with people. He was a voracious reader of history and fiction and a lover of world travel which gave him the ammunition to launch informed salvos of questions to the unsuspecting guest, newly minted in-law or just about anybody willing to talk. He could quickly connect people's interests and professions with what he had read and seen, resulting in rapid-fire conversations that fed his insatiable desire to know. He passed his intellectual wanderlust to his children, all of whom are terminally beset by curiosity and the need to explore.

Chuck loved to laugh and make people laugh. To the amused horror of his then teenage children, he would often tell callers, "No, Jenny is not here. She fell into the pig pen and the hogs ate her up." He could hold forth on the porch of the family's lake cabin for hours talking, joking, entertaining and making people feel good about themselves. He loved a good story and a story teller who could make you laugh without putting on airs.

Chuck would not want any long-winded, deep thoughts on the philosophical implications of his demise. While interested in the esoteric, he preferred the practical, the real, the human. Chuck was a people person in the full and truest sense. He spent his life giving of himself to friends, families and perfect strangers. He was at his very best when surrounded by people. His kindness, warmth and wisdom are his legacy. He leaves all those surviving him - and his famous Q and A sessions - better, wiser and happier people for having known him. He will be terribly missed.

Friends and family are invited to join us at Pebble Lake Golf Club on Sunday, September 22, 2013, from 7 to 9 pm.

Olson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls is in charge of the arrangements.