Charles Victor Pregaldin Jr.

BEDFORD -- Lt. Col. Charles V. Pregaldin Jr., U.S. Army (ret.), died Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013, after a brief illness, at the age of 94. He was born in 1919, and raised in Calhoun County, Ill. An engineering graduate of the University of Illinois, he was commissioned into the U.S. Army in March 1941, and served overseas for more than three years as a combat engineer company commander in Iceland and the European Theater. After occupation duty in Germany he returned to the United States and continued his military career, serving in a variety of staff and command assignments, including further overseas tours in Korea, Japan, and Germany, until his retirement from active duty in 1963. He then entered public service with the city of St. Louis, retiring in 1981 as the city's chief engineer. In retirement among other activities he pursued his love of foreign travel and of golf. In 2004 he moved to Bedford, Texas, to be near his daughter, Denise Schuster. His intelligence, kindness, humor, and great talent as a storyteller were remarked by everyone who knew him and will be remembered for many years.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 61 years, Jean Pillsbury Pregaldin, and is survived by his three children and their spouses, two grandsons and their wives, and a great-grandson.
There will be a memorial Mass at St. Michael's Catholic Church, Bedford, at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 12. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation to Army Emergency Relief ( www.aerhq.org ) in Col. Pregaldin's memory.