As many of you may remember, my brother Chuck Berry attended and graduated his senior year from NTC. Chuck had been blind since infancy due to retinal blastoma (a form of eye cancer), and attended most of his schooling at the Deaf & Blind School in Great Falls. Despite his handicap, Chuck achieved and excelled in many things...Ham Radio operating, taking apart & repairing electronic devices, singing, & his favorite thing music & playing drums. He loved to do things that most of us took for granted, ie: swimming, water skiing, bicycling, hiking, even driving with the help of one his family or friends! (Anyone remember us driving down main street in the little Corvair with Chuck at the wheel?)
Chuck moved to Denver after graduation where he lived on his own & played in a local band for a few years. Unfortunately, Chuck was diagnosed with advanced stage melanoma cancer in 1977 and passed away in January 1978! It was a heavy blow to both our family and friends, as we all had such high hopes for Chuck! His body was donated to Cancer Research in hopes that he would live on in new discoveries in the fight against cancer. We all miss him so much!
Please share your memories and thoughts for Chuck. Thank you..........his sister Joy Berry Swanson
Chuck's spot was behind the house. He had his ham radio there. I remember going in his room with Joy or Renee just to say hi and listen to some chattering on the ham radio. He taught Adam how to play the trap set. I was amazed the first time I saw Chuck on a bike riding up Main St. After that first time I considered it normal.
Hi Joy, Renee and all, Boy do i remember Chuck. The first time was in Conrad when your Mom was our cub scout leader. aone of the best is Conrad swimming pool and the high dive, which was a 6 or 7 meter diving board, to me i thought it was a 100 feet, well chuck was wanting to go off the high dive and i remember the life gaurd Carol hefty talking with all of us who were with him while he was getting her permission. Well he won over and and i remeber his first jump, when he got out i think it was either ted or eddie asked what he thought and he said he almost peed but he wanted more. I also remember the Chuck Shack and all his cool stuff, the car 45 phonograph was a neat thing. I also remember Tom Farbo and I going to Denver to take Norton's bike to him and a ll the snow. Chuck asked me to go with him to a store down the street to get smokes and i was a journey for it had snowed 4 feet that night, but true to his tenacity we forged on only to find the store closed, well we walked a lot farther to another store all the the while him telling me where we were going. I was always amazed and respected him immmensley. Yes i remember the covair. I also remeber riding bikes with him and asking him once how in the hell he did it. He told me his secret and amazingly years later there was a blind kid on a special tv show that showed he had the same remarkable trate of using sound waves , like a bat to detect objects, truley amazing. So yes i have many more fond memeories and i have always remembered your brother, i have over the years told many stories to my workers of Chuck and his abilities to get them to be better at what they needed to do or to quit whining about a owie or lack of commitment. He was a truley remarakable man, i thought he was an angel who was sent with a message that i did not grasp until later in life. God Bless to you all. Also i remember the pink Berry Bus, with eye lashes. PS is your bro Mike still kicking?
Joy Berry (Swanson) (1973)
As many of you may remember, my brother Chuck Berry attended and graduated his senior year from NTC. Chuck had been blind since infancy due to retinal blastoma (a form of eye cancer), and attended most of his schooling at the Deaf & Blind School in Great Falls. Despite his handicap, Chuck achieved and excelled in many things...Ham Radio operating, taking apart & repairing electronic devices, singing, & his favorite thing music & playing drums. He loved to do things that most of us took for granted, ie: swimming, water skiing, bicycling, hiking, even driving with the help of one his family or friends! (Anyone remember us driving down main street in the little Corvair with Chuck at the wheel?)
Chuck moved to Denver after graduation where he lived on his own & played in a local band for a few years. Unfortunately, Chuck was diagnosed with advanced stage melanoma cancer in 1977 and passed away in January 1978! It was a heavy blow to both our family and friends, as we all had such high hopes for Chuck! His body was donated to Cancer Research in hopes that he would live on in new discoveries in the fight against cancer. We all miss him so much!
Please share your memories and thoughts for Chuck. Thank you..........his sister Joy Berry Swanson
Kathy Gottfried (Johnson) (1974)
Chuck's spot was behind the house. He had his ham radio there. I remember going in his room with Joy or Renee just to say hi and listen to some chattering on the ham radio. He taught Adam how to play the trap set. I was amazed the first time I saw Chuck on a bike riding up Main St. After that first time I considered it normal.
Kathy Gottfried Johnson
Sylvester Guszregan (1972)
Hi Joy, Renee and all, Boy do i remember Chuck. The first time was in Conrad when your Mom was our cub scout leader. aone of the best is Conrad swimming pool and the high dive, which was a 6 or 7 meter diving board, to me i thought it was a 100 feet, well chuck was wanting to go off the high dive and i remember the life gaurd Carol hefty talking with all of us who were with him while he was getting her permission. Well he won over and and i remeber his first jump, when he got out i think it was either ted or eddie asked what he thought and he said he almost peed but he wanted more. I also remember the Chuck Shack and all his cool stuff, the car 45 phonograph was a neat thing. I also remember Tom Farbo and I going to Denver to take Norton's bike to him and a ll the snow. Chuck asked me to go with him to a store down the street to get smokes and i was a journey for it had snowed 4 feet that night, but true to his tenacity we forged on only to find the store closed, well we walked a lot farther to another store all the the while him telling me where we were going. I was always amazed and respected him immmensley. Yes i remember the covair. I also remeber riding bikes with him and asking him once how in the hell he did it. He told me his secret and amazingly years later there was a blind kid on a special tv show that showed he had the same remarkable trate of using sound waves , like a bat to detect objects, truley amazing. So yes i have many more fond memeories and i have always remembered your brother, i have over the years told many stories to my workers of Chuck and his abilities to get them to be better at what they needed to do or to quit whining about a owie or lack of commitment. He was a truley remarakable man, i thought he was an angel who was sent with a message that i did not grasp until later in life. God Bless to you all. Also i remember the pink Berry Bus, with eye lashes. PS is your bro Mike still kicking?