Mostly Cloudy, 30° F
(Sept. 20, 2007)
George Charles Hefenieder of Powell died Thursday, Sept. 20 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minn., of complications following cardiac bypass surgery. He was 66.
Born in Worland Dec.19, 1940 to George and Clara (Spadt) Hefenieder, he was raised on the family farm with his brother and three sisters. After graduation from high school, he attended Colorado State University, graduating in 1966.
He married Diane Hamlin of Worland in 1963. They raised two children, Brian and Kristin.
Charlie truly enjoyed working in the sugar beet fields all of his career, first as an agricultural field man for Great Western Sugar in Burlington, Colo., and Lovell, then selling sugar beet seed in a multi-state area from their home in Powell. He loved Wyoming and the mountains and liked nothing more than getting in his old Ford Bronco and finding some back road in the Pryors or Big Horn Mountains that he hadn’t been on before.
Traveling was another favorite thing to do. Upon retiring in 2003, he and Diane loaded up their motor home and spent their winters down south, the first year in Texas, then in Arizona, where they made new friends and visited friends from home who also wintered in Arizona. Perhaps his biggest joy was playing golf every Friday, weather permitting, at the Lovell golf course with “the gang.”
Charlie loved his family and said many times that he wished his kids, especially the grandkids, lived closer so he could see them more often. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Powell, Kiwanis Club, and also had served on the Powell City Council and Powell Hospital Board.
He was preceded in death by his parents and infant daughter, Kimberly.
Survivors include his wife Diane of the family home; son Brian of Chandler, Ariz.; daughter Kristi (Kevin) Miller and grandchildren Connor, Logan, and Katie Miller of Ankeny, Iowa; brother Bill (Bonnie) Hefenieder and sisters Clarice (Jim) Michel and Barb (Ray) Ehrmantraut, all of Worland, and sister Susan (Howard) Grable of Gillette; several aunts, numerous nephews and nieces, and his brother-in-law and golf partner, Mike Nichols of Mesa, Ariz.
Funeral services will be Thursday, Sept. 27 at 10:30 a.m. at First United Methodist Church with burial to follow at Crown Hill Cemetery. Visitation at Thompson Funeral Home will be Wednesday evening from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
For those who wish, the family asks that memorials be made to the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association or the Pulmonary Hypertension Association.
