Charles Franklin “Chuck” Schwartzkopf, born August 30, 1929, in Albert Lee, Minnesota, to Charles Edgar  and Alice Inger, nee Brattrud, Schwartzkopf departed for his heavenly reward at the age of 94 on August  8, 2024, in Austin, Texas.

Chuck was a popular and well known journalist and radio broadcasting professional in the Texas Central  Gulf Coast area. He shared air-time with the Early Bird, a bantam chicken, at radio station KULP in El  Campo, Texas, and his interest in his wife’s Czech language and customs led him to create “Polka Time”,  air time dedicated solely to playing various polkas. He also wrote a weekly column, “Chuck’s Wagon”, in  the El Campo Leader News.

Chucky, as he was affectionately called in his youth, was an only child and grew up in Waseca,  Minnesota. He had fond memories of sitting at the piano with his mother and aunts singing the popular  songs of the day as his mother played. He also enjoyed listening to his dad play the banjo each evening.

He was blissfully happy spending time at his grandpa’s Skelly Gas Company service station on State  Street in Waseca. His grandparents were the late Charles and Nora Schwartzkopf. Chucky remembered  delivering the Waseca Newspaper and the Minneapolis Star Journal in the snow on his wooden  Norwegian style skis.

At age 12, he moved with his parents to the East End of Houston, Texas where he attended Jackson  Junior High School. When he attended Stephen F. Austin High School in Houston, a heart malady  prevented him from participating in sports resulting in a life-long interest in magic, or prestidigitation, as  Chuck liked to say. He loved to eat chili cheese dogs at James Coney Island while living in Houston. While  attending high school in Houston, Chuck had a newspaper route in the vicinity of Telephone Road  delivering both the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post.

Chuck was influenced in his youth by his Aunt Helen Brattrud, a career woman with CBS in New York  City, which led him to enroll at the University of Houston and major in Radio Broadcasting, with a minor  in Drama.

In May of 1952, Chuck joined the Marine Corps and was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station El  Toro, California where his MOS, Military Occupational Specialty, was Radio Journalism. He gained his  training in journalism at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. While at El Toro, Chuck worked  off base as a Radio DJ and Journalist at Radio Station KVOE. He was invited to pursue a career in  broadcasting in Hollywood, but had a yearning to return to El Campo, and radio station KULP.

While at KULP, Chuck utilized the KULP Radio Station’s Mobile Remote Public Address System, referred  to as the KULP Sound Truck, all over Central Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast to broadcast on weekends  from Catholic Parish Annual Picnics held in places that included Praha, Frydek, Ganado, Louise, Dubina,  Columbus, New Ulm, and beyond.

During his career in radio at KULP, which had culminated in Chuck becoming the Manager of the station,  After leaving KULP, Chuck worked briefly for Wharton County Electric  Coop as head of Public Relations before accepting a job as the Public Information Director at Wharton  County Junior College (WCJC). He remained at WCJC until his retirement. During his time at WCJC, he  invited noted personalities to speak on campus including Wharton native, Dan Rather.

Throughout his career in El Campo, Chuck took on weekend broadcasting assignments at CBS radio  outlet, KTRH, in Houston, and also did broadcasting work for KULM radio station in Columbus, Texas.

Chuck was the Regional Newspaper Correspondent to the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Post, and the  Victoria Advocate for Wharton, Matagorda, and Jackson Counties for many decades.

While working at his first job in El Campo, Texas, at radio station KULP as a Personality Announcer and  Disc Jockey, Chuck met the love of his life, Joanna Wilma Kocurek. Chuck was the DJ providing dance  music at a benefit for the Military Guys and Dolls held at the El Campo Community Center and Joanna  won the “Guess What’s in the Box” drawing. The prize was a walk with the DJ to the radio station and  back. That stroll provided the spark and they later married at the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in Houston  on December 26, 1952, while Chuck was on a three-day leave from his duties in California with the  USMC. Their marriage was blessed for almost 68 years until Joanna’s death on September 1, 2020.

“Always forward thinking and using his creativity”, a phrase Chuck wanted inscribed on his headstone,  might best describe this magnificent man who will be greatly missed by all. Chuck founded the El Campo  Cultural Festival in tune with his fascination with ethnicity and cultural backgrounds, and his desire to  promote the cultural backgrounds of the people he lived with. He learned some Czech, Polish, and  Spanish so he could greet and converse with people in their “native tongue”. Joanna, being of Czech  descent, helped him read fan mail from his listeners who wrote to him in the Czech language. Chuck  made sure to incorporate ethnic songs of all the inhabitants of El Campo and Wharton County into his  KULP programming.

Chuck garnered numerous awards and commendations. Included among his accomplishments was  participation as a founding member of the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio, which commenced in  1972. He and his late friend, O. T. Baker, are credited with founding the Institute of Texan Cultures, also  in San Antonio.

Additional awards and commendations were given Chuck by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.  He was even named an active honorary Girl Scout. In Chicago, Illinois he was presented with the  National Polka DJ Award at the McCormick Place Convention Center and was able to dance with Joanna  to one of his favorite Polka Bands, The Six Fat Dutchmen, who played his favorite polka tune, Julida  Polka, a Czechoslovakian song. He was named Citizen of the Year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and  received awards for his work with the American Legion Craig-Harris Post 251, the Knights of Columbus  Council 2490, St. Philip Catholic Church, SPJST, Wharton Celebration on the Courthouse Square, and  many other groups.

Chuck lived his life grounded in the Roman Catholic faith and loved our Savior, Jesus Christ, throughout  his adult life, and he modeled the Christian life to all his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Chuck is survived by his four children, Juliet Vander Ploeg, and husband Bob; Nora McCullough, and  husband Jim; Chuck Schwartzkopf, Jr., and wife Stephanie, nee Satsky; and Nick Schwartzkopf, and wife  Dylin, nee Gello-ano; and by his eight grandchildren, R. Dirk Vander Ploeg II, and wife Julie, nee Hauglie;  Kate Vander Ploeg; Christine Wakefield, nee Vander Ploeg, and husband Troy P. “Trey” Wakefield, III;  Leonard E. ”Trey” Svrcek, III; Madison Rodon, nee Svrcek, and husband Matthew; Raleigh Palis, nee  McCullough, and husband Chris; Hannah Sigmon, nee Schwartzkopf, and husband Josh; and Cara  Schwartzkopf; and by his sixteen great-grandchildren: Ava, Bob, Penelope and Willem Vander Ploeg;  Jack, Van and Timothy Woodage; Mary, Ruth, Charlie, Eleanor, Frances and Dorothy Wakefield; Sailor  Palis, Harper Rodon, and Zoey Grace Sigmon.

The family extends its heartfelt gratitude to all the dedicated caregivers who attended to Chuck for over  seven years at Austin Retirement and Nursing Center on Burnet Lane in Austin, Texas.

A Visitation held at Triska Funeral Home in El Campo, Texas, Sunday, August 18 th at 2 p.m. with a  Rosary following at 4 p.m. On Monday, August 19, at 10 a.m. a Funeral Mass held at St. Philip the  Apostle Catholic Church in El Campo. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to St. Philip  Catholic School or St Philip the Apostle Catholic Church of El Campo, or to the Knights of Columbus  Council 2490 in El Campo, Texas.