Charles "Chuck" Joseph Denner

Charles J. “Chuck” Denner, 88, New Hampton, passed away on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at Mercy One Medical Center in New Hampton.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at Holy Family Church with Father Chris Podhajsky as celebrating the Mass.  Pallbearers will be his sons, Mike, Bill, Steve, Chris, Corey Denner, son-in-law Marc Eischeid, grandsons Craig and Cole Denner.  Great-grandchildren are honorary pallbearers.  Placing the pall will be his daughters, Carol Eischeid and Shelley Denner, grandchildren, Holly Gettler, Kara, Matt, Kate Denner.  Readers are grandchildren Samantha Ciccotti, Justin Denner, Aaron Eischeid-Weng and gift bearers are granddaughters Haley Denner and Emily Niewoehner.

Visitation will be Monday, March 16, 2026  from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory in New Hampton with a 3:30pm Rosary.  Visitation continues an hour prior to the service on Tuesday at the church.

Charles Joseph Denner was born in New Hampton on November 24, 1937, the son of Joseph G. and Lillian (Burgart) Denner.  As a young child Chuck helped his Mother tend the garden, feed chickens and gather eggs, later helping with chores and field work.  Chuck began his education at a country school a mile north of their farm with his sister, Josephine as his teacher.  He then attended St. Mary’s Parochial School through eighth grade and New Hampton High School, graduating in 1956.   While in high school, Chuck was a wrestler on Junior Varsity his freshman year and was a three-year varsity letter winner.  Chuck and a group of friends, all of whom owned their own cars, formed a car club The Road Knights, their purpose being of assistance to motorists having car trouble of any kind while on the road.  As a senior being the highest ranking Letterman not playing football, he received the honor of crowning the Homecoming Queen. 

Chuck and Elaine Brummond were married on July 2, 1956 at St. Mary Church, and as he desired to learn the tooling trade, two weeks after their marriage the young couple moved to San Diego, CA.  After an apprenticeship at Rohr Aircraft, he was employed at Convair Aircraft in the tooling department in the government buildings where jet fighters, F102, F106 were built.  He also worked on the tooling for the first unmanned Atlas Missile that went into space.  In 1960, the family returned to Iowa to farm.  In addition to farming, he worked at Supersweet Feeds, was one of the first employees hired when Lynor Engineering began and worked there again when it became TriMark.   Leaving farming in the 1980s, Chuck, or Charlie as he was called by his coworkers, was employed at Atwood (Dura) in West Union in the tooling department and as a supervisor until retiring in 2007.  He then drove semi, hauling grain for Rowe Trucking of Fredericksburg for eight years.

Chuck was the third of five generations of Denners to attend St. Mary Church where he was an altar server and usher, attended Immaculate Conception Church, North Washington and later Holy Family Church.   He enjoyed fishing, camping, traveling, playing cards, NASCAR racing, Chicago Bears, New York Yankees, Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State football and wrestling, old comedy shows on TV, spending winters in Florida and his favorite pastime, attending the various sports, music and other activities of his children and grandchildren and was proud of the fact that three generations of his family were “Chickasaw” wrestlers. He was a long time member of the New Hampton Chickasaw Booster Club.

Survivors include his wife, Elaine; daughters Carol (Marc) Eischeid, Davenport, Shelley, Shell Rock; sons Mike (Sharon) and Steve (Micki), Waverly, Bill (Peg) Osage, Chris, New Hampton, Corey (Jenny), Marion; 11 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; sisters Marion Frohn, Cedar Falls, Bonnie (Lynn) Hassman, Altoona; sisters-in-law Dorothy Denner, New Hampton, Camilla (Don) Conway, Cresco; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. 

Preceding him in death were his parents; brothers LaVerne, Bud and Jim (Betty) Denner; sisters Marcella (John) Swestka, Josephine (Stan) Dostal, DeLores (Lynn Rodamaker, Ernie) Picker; several nieces and nephews. 

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the family.