Charles B. Silliman, 97, died March 28, 2026, of natural causes at the Meth-Wick community in Cedar Rapids.
Born in 1929, in Elgin, Ill., his father died when he was 6, and his mother Mabel, a school nurse, raised Chuck, his brother Richard, and sister Joan during the Great Depression. He was very close with his cousins, Don and Bob Schuberg. In high school, Chuck played point guard on a national-championship-winning basketball team, and while still a teenager he sailed to Germany and Poland as a cattle-tender on a humanitarian aid mission after WWII. He majored in History and German at Cornell college, married June M. Webb, and moved with their newborn daughter, Anna, to the University of Oregon to earn a teaching certificate.
Chuck then taught for two years at the Woodstock Country School in South Woodstock, Vt., before returning to Mount Vernon in 1957, this time with the baby Matthew, in tow. He taught German, history, and English for some years at Jefferson high school in Cedar Rapids before accepting a Fulbright exchange fellowship to teach for a year in Frankfurt, Germany, now with their third child, Emily, along for the ride. The family lived in Cedar Hills for four years, then moved back to Mount Vernon, where Chuck led the foreign language department and taught German at Mount Vernon high school. He loved taking groups of students to Germany. Chuck spent several years mentoring student teachers at Cornell, and after retiring for real he pursued interests in Gothic cathedral architecture and model aircraft, and developed a fascination with archeology, prompted by June’s extensive work on digs all over the world, which she undertook after completing her own career in teaching.
During most of his working career Chuck also served as a United Methodist lay pastor to several rural congregations in Eastern Iowa.
June and Chuck moved to a condominium in Coralville in the early aughts, and later to an apartment at Greenwood in the Meth-Wick community in Cedar Rapids, where June died in the fall of 2022 after 72 years of marriage.
He is survived by his three children, Anna, Matthew, and Emily; their spouses, Peter Dowben, Sharon Wyrrick, and Dale Shultz; and granddaughters, Margaret and Carolyn.
Those who knew Chuck well remember him as always full of stories, jokes and much laughter. And he was a great audience if you had a story to tell him. Rather than sending flowers, please consider a donation in his name to one of Chuck’s favorite local charities, the Matthew 25 Cultivate Hope Corner Store in Cedar Rapids.
Please share your memories with Chuck’s family on his obituary page at www.stewartbaxter.com under the Obituaries tab.