Charles Huff, 79

Charles (Chuck) Huff died on Jan. 24, 2015, at Hospice of Northwest in Hayden, Idaho as a result of pancreatic cancer.

Services will be held on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, at 11a.m. in the Bonners Ferry Funeral Home in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Interment will be at a later time in the Porthill Cemetery, Porthill, Idaho.

Chuck was born in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, on Nov. 6, 1935, to Charles C. Huff and Emma Bouzek Huff. Chuck lived the majority of his life in the Copeland/Porthill area of Boundary County at the foot of his beloved Hall Mountain.

After the death of his parents he and his wife moved into his childhood home where they resided at the time of his death.

Chuck attended Porthill and Mt. Hall elementary schools, graduated from Bonners Ferry High School and went one year to North Idaho Junior College in Coeur d’Alene.

He never quit learning, he enjoyed studying mining and geology and his library is full of books like the “Glacier Lake Missoula” and “Wolves in Russia,” prompted by the recent introduction of wolves.

In the last few years Chuck learned to use a computer and was so impressed with the World Wide Web.

In 1963 Chuck married Isabel Wolff Shuman in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

In this marriage he included her three children, Rose, Mike and Phillip. To this family was added daughters, Mary and Faye.

After college Chuck worked for Kelson Lumber Company, owned and operated a Mobil bulk fuel company and was a member of the Idaho National Guard.

Chuck belonged to the Kootenai Valley Rifle and Pistol Club, shooting in competitions throughout the North West. In 1962 he won the regional championship.

Chuck worked at the lumber mill in Moyie Springs through five different owners, ending with Louisiana Pacific, he was employed there 17 years, most of that time as a certified lumber grader. In 1980 he left the mill and worked his own land until his retirement.

Together Chuck and Isabel farmed, raised sheep and developed an outstanding herd of Black Angus cattle.

Chuck logged and managed his timber ground using his expertise as a lumber grader to market his logs. A recent acquisition was a saw-mill where Chuck happily produced finished lumber from his own trees.

Chuck was instrumental in the development of Hall Mountain Water Assn. and volunteered many hours to Porthill Cemetery and Hall Mountain Volunteer Fire Assn. He was elected several times to serve on the Farm Service Agency Board.

Through-out his life, Chuck was an avid sportsman. His prowess as a marksman kept the larder full of elk and deer meat, and happy hours spent fishing the beautiful waters of Idaho and Montana added variety.

Chuck is survived by his wife of 50 years; his daughters, Mary Wagner and husband Dave of Coeur d’Alene, Faye Huff Williams and her husband George, of Troy, Idaho; stepchildren, Rose Waters and husband, Dann of Hayden Lake, Mike Huff of Moyie Springs and Phillip Huff of Hayden, 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren and sisters Beverly Cordes, Fallon NV and Pauline Bierward, Bonners Ferry. He was preceded in death by his infant daughter, Elizabeth, and his parents.

Family and friends are invited to sign Chuck’s book at www.bonnersferryfuneralhome.com Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Bonners Ferry Funeral Home.