Charles Wicks

Charles Edward Wicks of Corvallis died July 29, 2010 following a brief illness, at the age of 85. Charles was born July 9, 1925 to Clarence Edward Wicks and Ruth Rawlings Wicks in Prineville, Oregon. Most of his youth was spent in Albany, and he graduated from Albany Union High School in 1942. He attended Willamette University for one year after high school, where he met his future wife, Miriam Day. After this first year, he entered the U.S. Coast Guard, serving in the Pacific from the Aleutian Islands to the Philippines from 1943 to 1946. After completing his military service, he returned to Oregon State University. In 1948, Charles and Miriam were married in San Francisco. He earned his B.S. (Chemical Engineering) in 1950 from OSU, his M.S. (1952) and Ph.D. (1954) from Carnegie Institute of Technology. While an undergraduate at Oregon State University, he was very active in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He also won his varsity letter on the OSU swimming team and third prize in the National AIChE student design contest. Upon graduating from Carnegie Tech in 1954, he joined Oregon State University Chemical Engineering Department. He served as Department Head from 1970 to 1987. As a professor at Oregon State University, “Doc” was beloved as a teacher. He was recognized for excellence in teaching and advising and received many awards, including three Carter Awards, the Dar Reese Excellence in Advising Award, and the OSU Alumni Award for Outstanding Teacher. In fact, you would be hard pressed to attend an OSU alumni function without finding someone who was pulled through school with Doc’s assistance. He was also a life-long Beaver fan, being well remembered for his passion during basketball and football games. In fact one of his last comments to his son Ken was “once a Beaver, always a Beaver”. He was nationally and internationally recognized in the area of mass transfer operations, and was the author or co-author of four engineering textbooks; one of these – “Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer” – has had five editions and has been published in at least six languages. This led to him acting as a visiting professor in China, Malaysia and Mexico during the latter portion of his teaching career. He received the Distinguished Alumni Citation from Willamette University in 1992 and was named to the OSU Engineering Hall of Fame in 1999. He was always interested in and concerned for the students at Oregon State, serving as advisor to various student organizations, including the student chapter of AIChE, and Blue Key. He also served his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta, serving in many roles, concluding as their international president. He received his fraternity’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, for his contributions to international education. He was an active member of the United Methodist Church and the Corvallis Masonic Lodge No. 14. He also served in many volunteer positions for the Corvallis-Benton County Library. Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Miriam Day Wicks, twin sons Roger and his wife Cecile of Colonial Heights, Virginia; Kenneth and his wife Carol Wenk of Westfield, New Jersey; daughter, Julie Giltner and her husband Todd of Puyallup, Washington; grandchildren (Jon, Allison, Megan, Kevin, Sean, Katie and Alex), and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brothers Richard and Clarence. The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be sent to OSU Foundation, 850 SW 35th St., Corvallis, OR 97333. A celebration of Charles' life will be held on 7:00 pm on September 17th at the LaSells Stewart Center at OSU.

Tributes

Charles Wicks

July 9, 1925 - July 29, 2010