Charles E. "Chuck" Munson, 79, of Junction City, Kansas, passed away on
Monday, February 27, 2023. Chuck died peacefully in Manhattan at the
hospital where his kids were born, in the presence of his family and
friends. A visitation will be held on Monday, March 6, 2023, from 5:00
p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church. A funeral service
will take place at 10:30 a.m., at the First Presbyterian Church on
Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Burial will follow at Highland Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Kansas State University
Foundation, located at 1800 Kimball Ave., Suite 200, Manhattan, Kansas,
66502-3373 or to the First Presbyterian Church in Junction City, Kansas.
Chuck lived a lifetime of high achievements and dedication to
the principles he believed in. He was an accomplished owner and
operator of the Munson Angus Farms, a distinguished graduate of Kansas
State University, a major leader in sustainable agriculture and rural
development in local through national levels, a generous and active
philanthropic leader in Geary County and Eastern Kansas.
He was
deeply dedicated to the advancement of agriculture, to the practices of
sustainable beef farming through Munson Angus Farms, to higher education
and Kansas State University, to the preservation of Geary County and
the Flint Hills region, to 4-H youth development, and to the positive
legacy of his extended and multi-generational family.
He was a
person of deep American patriotism and faith throughout his almost
eighty years of life. He was a lifetime member of the First Presbyterian
Church of Junction City, Kansas, and a devoted parent to his children
Michelle and David, his grandchildren Aidan, Camilla, and Kieran, and a
dedicated husband to his wife of 54 years, Deanna Munson.
On Monday, February 27, 2023, he passed on to be with the Almighty God that he believed in and patterned his life after.
A
descendant of the original Swedish pioneer settlers, Carl August and
Emilie Monson (later renamed ‘Munson’), Chuck believed that a person
could make his own destiny through hard work, education, and smart risk
taking. He was also genuine and ultimately responsible, if he said he
would do something, he would honor it.
Charles was born to Ralph
and Bernice Baresel Munson on March 28, 1943, in Junction City, Kansas,
the first of three children followed by his siblings, Virginia Munson
Moxley and Robert Munson. He graduated from Dickinson County Community
High School (now Chapman High School), (second in his class to Mary Kay
Munson and Student of the Year) and was an active and longtime member of
4-H and Future Farmer’s of America (FFA). He graduated from Kansas
State University with a Bachelors of Science in Agriculture Economics
with high honors in 1965 and was selected as the speaker for graduation.
He married Deanna McCracken, daughter of Fred and Lucile Michaels of
Lyndon, Kansas, on December 22, 1968, at the First Presbyterian Church
in Topeka, Kansas.
After graduating from KSU, he took over the
Munson Farms operation and grew what became Munson Angus Farms LLC to
scale, and continued to manage it himself for over 35 years.
An
agricultural economist by education, he believed in efficiency and
leverage, and was known for working to achieve at the level that would
bring the highest impact for the goal. His purebred Angus beef farm was
known for exceptional quality and was fed directly from the grain he
grew on his farm. His grain fields consistently had high and profitable
yields and his farm work standards were difficult to maintain. Those who
worked for him over the years noted the challenge and were devoted.
He
attributed his success in life to Kansas State and was a lifetime
advocate of the university and higher education. He loved the traditions
and K-State life. Chuck believed very strongly in the importance of
higher education and influenced many young people he mentored over the
years to get a university degree. Dr. Mugler was one of Chuck's favorite
professors.
Chuck continuously advanced his own education and
farming practice over his lifetime by actively following the College of
Agriculture at KSU, and he continuously adopted and advocated for new
technology and sustainable agricultural practices and land management.
He won many awards in his 30's and 40's from the Soil Conservation
Service for land management. In 2009, he was named the Distinguished
Alumnus for the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State
University. In 2016, Charles and Deanna won the NCBA National
Environmental Stewardship Award, given to only six farms in the United
States for stewardship and conservation in cattle production.
Chuck
was a person to move forward at the right time. He invested in
technology and encouraged his children’s interest in the future. Over
the course of his life, he invested in the first internet service
provider in Junction City and in his daughter Michelle’s first company,
Aspera, that went on to build a standard for high-speed file transfer
and to be acquired by IBM.
Chuck believed strongly in working to
grow the community in which he lived and raised money to enable many
important advances in Geary County and the State of Kansas, using his
commercial success and ability to influence others with his leadership.
He led the drives to raise the funds to build the 4-H Fairgrounds in
Geary County and Rock Springs Ranch. He served for many years as a
Trustee of the KSU Foundation and on the Board of Directors of the
K-State Alumni Association and of Central National Bank. He developed
and organized the Extension Advisory Council on the state level.
Locally, he served on the Soil Conservation Board for 20 years.
Chuck
loved sports and particularly Kansas State sports. He held season
tickets for football and basketball throughout his entire lifetime and
attended every KSU Bowl game, including the Sugar Bowl in January 2023
with his children David and Michelle and grandson Aidan.
He was
an active supporter of Republican political candidates at the local,
state, and national levels, who were supporters of forward-thinking
agricultural and societal policies. He actively campaigned for and
donated to many candidates, visited many senators and congresspeople in
Washington DC over the years including Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, and
Pat Roberts. Chuck believed in the democratic and legislative process
and was always active in his involvement and influence. Interestingly,
he supported a few democratic candidates that he believed were
‘intelligent’.
Chuck is survived by his wife Deanna; son David
and his wife Laura and daughter Camilla of Manhattan, Kansas; daughter
Michelle and husband Serban and their sons Aidan and Kieran who live in
Berkeley, California.
Chuck encouraged his children to value
education, travel, and civic involvement. He and Deanna supported their
efforts that resulted in many academic and 4-H achievements.
Chuck,
Deanna, and David visited Michelle at the University of Cambridge to
travel throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland when she was in
graduate school. They hosted a foreign exchange student from Norway, and
the family traveled with both kids throughout all of their endeavors,
and with their grandchildren throughout the United States and abroad,
including visiting Romania to see Michelle’s husband's family.
In
lieu of retirement after age 70, Chuck and Deanna chose to establish
new farm-to-table restaurants in recent years to share their farm’s beef
and way of life. Chuck and Deanna first established Munson Prime in
Junction City, and after a fire there, purchased the historic Brookville
Hotel in Abilene, Kansas, which they were actively building in 2023.
From
2022 to 2023, at 78 years old, Chuck actively organized and led the
community wide campaign to stop the building of an unsustainable mass
slaughter house in Geary County. He and Deanna, worked with the broader
community, KSU, and Fort Riley experts to organize an analysis of the
environmental, labor, economic, and intangible impacts to the Geary
County community.
Until his last day, Chuck was working both in
the foreground and background to make certain that it would not be
impossible for this short-sighted and selfish project to go forward and
destroy generations of economic value and quality of life in Geary
County and the Flint Hills that he loved so dearly. It also goes without
saying that in all of his years Chuck never treated an animal the way
that a “mass slaughterhouse” operates.
This is the legacy of Chuck Munson.
Click HERE for service details.