Charles Rhodes Hoak
Charles R. Hoak
Charles R. Hoak U. S. Army Veteran
He took a post-graduate course as a member of the first class of James Wood High School while waiting for the Army to draft him. He went into the Army in September, 1952 and served as a part of Charlie Company, 1343rd Engineer Combat Battalion. He received the Korean Service Medal with two bronze service stars, served as Company Clerk, and was honorably discharged in March of 1954 as a Technical Sergeant.
Following his discharge, he went to Washington DC and worked for the DC Air National Guard at Andrews Air force Base, where he kept inventory of supplies for the 113th Field Maintenance Squadron. After that he went to VDOT Fairfax County as permit inspector for contractors doing work within the state right of way. He attended Strayer College, and later took additional engineering courses at UVA and George Washington University.
He joined the 2070th ARASU DC and served an additional eight years at the USAR Judge Advocate School at Fort Mead as operations manager. Following his separation from the Guard, he went to Chesterfield County as chief inspector for a $20,000,000 trunk line sewer project. Then he implemented a plan to alleviate duplicate street/property names for Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield Counties to improve mail delivery, police, fire, and rescue services.
He was employed by the FAA to prepare for the opening and the open-house dedication ceremony for the new Dulles Airport. There were over 100,000 people expected including President John F. Kennedy, former presidents Eisenhower, Truman, and Hoover, Senators, Congress members, foreign and domestic Ambassadors, as well as the general public.
He spent twenty-six years with Gilles and Cotting, Inc, a Falls Church construction company, serving as project manager or superintendent on many projects including the Lebanese Pavilion for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, an 18 month program at the White House during the Nixon Administration, 16 months on the Crisis Center at the Pentagon, converted the gymnasium at Longworth House US Senate Office Building. He restored a tornado damaged airplane hanger at Andrews AFB and several projects at Reagan and Dulles Airports.
He received the prestigious “Subby” Award from the DC Metropolitan Subcontractors Assoc. at its 12th Annual Banquet in 1977.
During lean times he also worked with other construction companies: renovated a 5 mile steam tunnel project in DC for Technical Construction; added onto existing archives at National Geographic Society, Gaithersburg; Completed a 96,000 sq. foot pre-cast warehouse for Shockey Brothers at Tysons Corner; new fire station at Fort Belvoir; church at Woodbridge and an extension to LFCC in Fredericksburg.
After his retirement from construction, he worked for FEMA at Mt. Weather for an additional 7 years.
He married Lea Palmer in March of 1991. Along with his wife, he is survived by cherished nieces, nephews, grand and great nieces and nephews.
Along with his parents he was preceded in death by his twin brother Roy R. Hoak, Jr. and his sister Lucille H. Beable.
Charles was a charter member of the Shenandoah Valley Chapter #313 Korean War Veterans and spent many hours working with that organization on fund-raising, building of the memorial in Jim Barnett Park, and responding to invitations. He often served as carpool leader for events in Washington DC. He knew all the back roads and quickest routes to events sponsored by the National, and local KWVA organizations and invitations from the Republic of Korea were never refused!
The family will receive friends for visitation on Thursday, January 9 at 1:00 at Omps Amherst Funeral Home, followed by the service at 2:00, led by the The Rev. Dr. Raleigh H. Watson. The graveside service at Mount Hebron Cemetery will be conducted by The Rev. Jack Keep. Military honors will be provided by active duty and VFW #2123.
Pallbearers will be Michael Craddock, Mark Craddock, Greg Duncan, Reid Hoak, Bob Palmer and Tom Palmer. Honorary pallbearers are the members of the Shenandoah Valley Chapter 313 Korean War Veterans.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in memory of Charles to Shenandoah Valley Chapter #313 of the Korean War Veterans Association, P.O. Box 3244, Winchester, VA or Blue Ridge Hospice, 333 W. Cork Street, Suite 405, Winchester, VA 22601.