Charles Webber Bunce Jr.

Charles Webber Bunce, Jr. passed away on December 18, 2024 at the age of 90. Charlie was born on October 22, 1934 in Erie, PA as the youngest child and only son to the late Charles Webber Bunce, Sr. and Lucille Parsons Bunce.

Charlie was raised in Erie until he went off to college at the University of Pittsburgh in 1952, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with an emphasis in Statistics in 1956, launching him into a venturesome career of bank examining, auditing, administration, and serving on multiple professional and community boards over the years.

Charlie met his wife of 66 years, Nancy, in Pittsburgh at a Phi Gamma Delta fraternity party in 1953. They were married in June 1957 on the campus of Nancy’s alma mater, Chatham College in Pittsburgh, just a week after she graduated. Charlie was known by many names over the years including Chuck and his fraternity nickname, Bunny.

After the wedding and subsequent classic honeymoon to Niagara Falls, Charlie and Nancy relocated to Butler, PA where Charlie continued his bank examining career with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He traveled weekly which made for an interesting first nine years of marriage, communicating a great deal via letters. He had some fascinating stories from those years. Charlie and Nancy’s first four children, Charlie III, Martha, Mary, and Cheryl, were born in Butler. They left Butler in 1966 and moved to Pueblo, CO, where Charlie was the Cashier and eventually Senior Vice President of First National Bank/Colorado National Bank. Their fifth child, Karen, was born in Pueblo.

Upon leaving Colorado in 1992, Charlie and Nancy lived in Kingsport, TN, Fairfax, VA, Columbia, MD, and Jacksonville, FL, where they retired from AOL before settling in Sun Lakes, AZ in 2003. Nancy passed on September 25, 2023. They loved living in Oakwood Unit 36-C on Lake Diamond in Sun Lakes and built the first house on the lake in 2003.

Charlie’s storied career spanned the gamut from traveling around Pennsylvania auditing for the state, to having the dangerous job of being the Cashier/in charge of access to the vault for Colorado National Bank, to acting as the transitional President/CEO of a bank in Tennessee, to working graveyard/customer service for AOL in the 1990s, and responding to email for AOL President, Steve Case, when he rose to the top of the Finance Department in the Jacksonville AOL office. He also helped with bookkeeping for Nancy’s advertising agency off and on over the years.

In his younger years, he had a paper route, delivered flowers in high school, drove a Coke truck in the summers during college, and worked at a factory manufacturing aluminum canister sets. He also had fun tales of moving cars up and down the eastern seaboard with his dad from PA to Florida and back, and to Mexico. After they delivered one car, they would buy another to transport them back to Erie.

Charlie was a car guy through and through and was still talking about the latest models until just days before he died. He loved the CarPro podcast and was tickled when his daughter and son-in-law had the host, Jerry, give him a shout out on the live broadcast when they met Jerry at the Houston Car Show, in January 2020. Charlie and Nancy had a lot of neat cars over the years and got a kick out of ordering a custom BMW convertible when they retired from AOL.

Charlie and Nancy had traveled to most of the 50 states. Charlie came by auto travel naturally, as his parents were known for their adventures down to Florida and the Baja of Mexico in their Airstream Trailer in the 1960s. Charlie and Nancy even traversed down into Baja Mexico to visit their daughter during the winter of 2002.

Charlie was a devoted community member and served on countless boards usually as Treasurer and/or President, including: United Way, Goodwill, Pueblo Community Health Center, Bank Administration Institute, Union Avenue/Historic Pueblo Business Center Association, and of course Iron Oaks in Sun Lakes, where he was a board member/VP/President, 2008-2012. He and Nancy were quite a team as she commonly served on the board committees as well, frequently designing the image/marketing including the Iron Oaks logo, and adding her expertise. They were both known to be tireless volunteers who gave their all. Although he wasn’t the social butterfly of the couple, he definitely was the steady backbone who worked humbly behind the scenes.

Charlie was a committed golfer, serving as President and in other leadership roles on the Lakers Niners golf league for many years. As in so many aspects of his life, he was consistent on the golf course, hitting straight down the green. He was also commonly seen on the walking paths and around Lake Diamond with his beloved dachshunds and in his later years, as a steadfast attendee at the fitness center five days a week. It was this long-term commitment to exercising that helped him through so many health challenges and to still be agile and driving until just a month before he died. He was tough as nails and never gave up; we thought he would live forever. He was known for his organizational and brilliant math skills, common sense, problem solving, and practical approaches to situations. He was a proud southpaw, detail-oriented, loyal, dependable, trustworthy, and loved the color yellow, cookies, watching professional baseball and other sports, and having “couch time” with the dachshunds. He was also known for his stylish dress even into retirement, his laundering skills, safe driving, hardly ever (if ever) missing a day of work, and being bald most of his adult life. He was proud of his bald head before bald was cool. One of his other rewarding accomplishments was being a longtime, consistent blood donor until he could no longer donate. In his earlier years, he could be seen swimming in the backyard in Colorado, riding his bike, participating in many bowling leagues, and walking around the towns where they lived. He also had a longtime love of podcasts and audiobooks, stretching back to books on tape and iPod.

One of the best memories was when three of the Bunce offspring surprised Charlie and Nancy with a large 50th Anniversary Party at Sun Lakes’ Ironwood Country Club, in 2007. Charlie was so proud he made it to 90 and although we miss him, we take comfort in knowing that he was surrounded by love when he passed and that he is now reunited with Nancy and their dogs. They can watch Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Pickers, Shark Tank, and all their favorite shows together again.

Charlie is survived by son Charles W. Bunce, III (Shanynn); daughters Martha (Greg) Thomas, Mary Oldham, Cheryl Gonzales, and Karen (Dave) Sheff; grandchildren Elizabeth (Kyle Riester) Bunce, Jonathan (Katie) Bunce, Stephen Bunce, Luke (Christine) Thomas, Thad Thomas, Taylor Oldham, Brady Oldham, Buddy (McKinley) Gonzales, and Josie Minjiao; great grandsons, Matthew and Caleb Thomas. He was preceded in death by his parents, sisters Barbara Bunce Jones and Charlotte Bunce Hinds, and his wife, Nancy Teeters Bunce.

The family would like to give special thanks to Hospice of the Valley, Chandler Regional Hospital, Chandler Fire Department, and friends and neighbors in Sun Lakes.

At Charlie’s request, no services will be conducted at this time. A private family memorial will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Charlie’s memory to Tunnels to Towers www.t2t.org