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Charles K. Bendorf, age 83, died on Jan. 17. Charles was born Sept. 25, 1934, to Chris K. Bendorf and Julia L. Bendorf in Blair. From birth Chuck was afflicted with cerebral palsy, which to most people would be considered a detriment, but to Chuck it was a strength which caused people to be drawn to him. This may be because of his constant smile and happy attitude which was infectious and spilled over to all who he came in contact with.

As a young child, Chuck grew up in a funeral home along with his father, mother and sister Tommy. He was well loved by the members of the small town of Blair and he would be greeted by them with “Hi Chuck” as he would walk up and down the streets.

As a young man Chuck was “drafted” as an umpire by his friend, Jim McKay and he was involved with umpiring both the men’s and the women’s slow pitch softball league as well as the men’s fast pitch league. Chuck was also made a referee for Blair High School football games. Chuck’s calls were considered to be always fair and correct. He would always call them the way that he saw it. He once said, “An umpire is not always right, but he is never wrong.”

After the death of Chuck’s father he and his mother moved from Blair to Eureka, Calif. to live with his sister and brother-in-law and their family. He remained in Eureka the rest of his life but constantly talked about and remembered his life and friends in Blair. Chuck was cared for by his family in Eureka, especially his sister, Tommy and her husband John, who kept him in their home until it was physically impossible to do so.

The finial years of Chuck’s life were lived in Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, where he developed many friendships and relationships with other clients, their families and staff. Chuck’s positive attitude, laugh and big smile were legendary at Granada. He loved living at Granada, especially on “Bowling and BINGO nights” when Charles Hytken would include him in the activities.

The family of Chuck Bendorf would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the staff and to all who were involved with Chuck’s care while at Granada. Your love and excellent care of Chuck made his life full, complete and happy. We know he loved being with all his nurse “girlfriends.” Charles was quite a flirt at times… we know that he will be missed by all.

As a final note of hope: It gives us all great peace to know that because of Chuck’s great faith in his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Chuck slipped into eternity with a smile on his face. We know that today Chuck is no longer bound by the crippling disease of cerebral palsy but rather he is running and walking on streets of gold. Instead of being hard to understand when he speaks, he is shouting with a clear voice the praises of the God that he loves so much. We know there is a day ahead for all of us when we shall see Chuck again… it's just another reason for us to make sure we go to heaven.

Chuck was preceded in death by his father, Chris K Bendorf, and his mother, Julia L Bendorf, and his brother-in-law, John B Slater M.D. He is survived by his sister Thomasine (Tommy) B Slater, his nephew, John Slater and his wife Cindy, his nephew, Chuck Slater and his wife Grace, His niece Julia Hutler and her husband Rick. He is also survived by many great-nephews and nieces: Joelle and Kyle Jermstad; Katelyn, Abigail, Christopher and Margret Slater; and Hannah, MacKenzie, and Jackson Hutler. He is also survived by one great-great-niece, Sage Thomasine Jermstad.

The family of Chuck Bendorf wishes to express our thanks to Gobel’s Mortuary for their great respect and care of Chuck during this time. All friends and family are invited to the memorial service, which will be held at Eureka the Pentecostal Church, 1060 Hoover Street, Eureka, CA 95501, on Feb. 3, at 1 p.m. Viewing will be held at Gobel’s Mortuary on Friday, Feb. 2, from 2 to 5 p.m.

The family asks that donations be made in Chuck’s name to either the Cerebral Palsy Foundation or to Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.

#2-Former ump didn't let illness stop him

Enterprise Publishing Stephanie Ludwig Nov 6, 2009

He may have been an unusual figure.

A small man, bent and wizened, not from age but with a condition that affected his muscle movements. He would walk, almost daily, past South Elementary School toward the ball fields a few blocks away. He may have limped at times, and been in pain on other occasions, but rarely anything came between Chuck Bendorf and umpiring the baseball games of Blair, and being with the children he loved.

"It just amazed me that he was so involved, that his disability didn't prevent him from being involved in the athletics of Blair," said Steve Booton, a former neighbor of Bendorf's. "He had such a compassion for children."

Chuck Bendorf, born in Blair on Sept. 25, 1935, was a staple of Blair athletics in the 1960s and 1970s. He suffered from cerebral palsy, a developmental disorder that affects the areas of the brain that cause movement. Symptoms include abnormal muscle tone, reflexes, motor development and balance.

But Bendorf never let those get him down. He umpired literally thousands of games for Blair's Little League teams and Dana College, never letting on that his disease put him in agonizing pain at times.

While Bendorf moved to California in the 1970s, his memory is still strong among many of the children he saw everyday at the ball fields.

"Any kid that played baseball is going to remember Chuck. It's odd for any kid to remember an umpire but he was a fun guy," said Dwight Petersen, who played baseball as a child.

Booton remembers Bendorf strongly. He lived a few blocks away from Bendorf and watched him walk to Vet's ball fields almost everyday. He remembers the man stopping to say hi to him, even when he was just a small boy of 4 or 5.

He knew that Bendorf's ungainly appearance frightened some children but he knew otherwise.

"Many kids in the neighborhood were scared of him but I found him to have a wonderful sense of humor," Booton said. "If they knew him, they'd find out there was nobody gentler on the face of the earth or with such a compassionate heart for others."

Or with such a love for athletics. Bendorf had a passion for sports, especially baseball, so he umpired every spring and summer. While he loved the sport, he also took the time to get to know the players, racing with Booton, a batboy, to retrieve foul balls. Looking back, Booton now realizes Bendorf must have been in pain while playing with him, but the umpire never let on to his playmate.

Rich Hansen, another of Bendorf's friends, has kept in touch with the old umpire over the years. He recently visited Bendorf at his sister's home in California, talking over the old games and remembering the good times. Bendorf recently celebrated his 74th birthday, a milestone for anyone with cerebral palsy.

"To say he was beloved by his friends and fans in Blair would be an understatement," Hansen said. "Chuck was a gift to our community."

Petersen and Booton haven't kept in touch with Bendorf over the years as Hansen has, but each still hold a special place in their memories for him.

"I recall back in my kid years that the really young kids just accepted Chuck," Petersen said. "When you got a little bit older and became an ornerier group of kids, you might have made fun of him a little amongst yourselves. But when you matured, you came to respect him and admire him for what he did and what he was going through and overcame. He was still doing things he obviously enjoyed doing, he just had a physical impediment."

Booton was amazed when he found out Hansen still kept in touch with his childhood friend.

"I have such wonderful memories and I'd love to thank him for being a friend to a kid," he said. "I just wish him the best and smile when I think about him. Thank you for the smiles."

#3-Published in the Enterprise February 9, 2018

Beloved Blair umpire Chuck Bendorf dies at 83 By Grant Egger

Before a career in sports television took him across the country, Steve Taylor was a 1960s Blair ballplayer throwing pitches from the mound.

The umpire of those summer recreation youth games called balls and strikes from the infield. Taylor remembers turning from the batter to see what Chuck Bendorf had to say about his most recent offerings.

“He had a very emphatic strike call,” Taylor said Monday.

Bendorf died Jan. 17 in California at the age of 83. The news affected many of those who befriended the Blair man afflicted with cerebral palsy. To outsiders, he may have been an unusual figure who's speech was hard to understand, but to those who knew him, he was beloved.

“I always could understand him,” former neighbor Rich Hansen said. “Chuck had charisma.”

Hansen lived across the street from Bendorf, saying that one of his earliest childhood memories is of his lifelong friend. He said everyone was drawn to the man and everyone liked him.

“He was the world's friendliest guy,” Taylor said.

Jon Stewart said Bendorf was a family friend for many years. He believed he'd gotten on the umpire's good side, earning some calls out on the field, but the man calling the games was always fair.

“He'd play games with the kids and let them win — sometimes,” Stewart said.

Bendorf was born Sept. 25, 1935, to Chris K. Bendorf and Julia L. Bendorf and became a staple of Blair athletics in the 1960s and 1970s.

Despite his disease, which causes abnormal muscle tone, reflexes, motor development and balance, he became an umpire through his friend Jim McKay. Soon he was working softball games and even refereed football games at Blair High School.

In addition to that work, Bendorf spent hours upon hours umpiring Blair Little League games and contests at Dana College.

Taylor admitted that he'd gone 20 to 30 years without even hearing Bendorf's name after the umpire moved to be with his sister in California. But, when he did, the memories flooded back of the man everyone in Blair had a soft spot for.

“Who couldn't be nice to Chuck?” he said.

Stewart said he, too, hadn't heard from Bendorf in years, unsure if his childhood friend was alive.

Hansen, who stayed in contact, last visited him in California in 2009. He called it an “emotional homecoming.”

The pair spent three hours together, sharing stories of the days out at the ballfields in Nebraska. Bendorf recalled those days fondly.

“You could search the globe for people from Blair and never find someone as attached to the town as him,” Hansen said.

Bendorf spent his final years in Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, where he developed many friendships with other clients, their families and staff, according to his obituary.

He is preceded in death by his father, Chris K. Bendorf, and his mother, Julia L Bendorf, and his brother-in-law, John B. Slater M.D. He is survived by his sister Thomasine (Tommy) B. Slater, his nephew, John Slater and his wife Cindy, his nephew, Chuck Slater and his wife Grace, his niece Julia Hutler and her husband Rick. He is also survived by many great-nephews and nieces: Joelle and Kyle Jermstad; Katelyn, Abigail, Christopher and Margret Slater; and Hannah, MacKenzie, and Jackson Hutler. He is also survived by one great-great-niece, Sage Thomasine Jermstad.

Bendorf's memorial service was Feb. 3 at Pentecostal Church in Eureka, Calif. His family asks that any donations be made in Chuck's name to either the Cerebral Palsy Foundation or to Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.

#4-Published in the Pilot-Tribune February 20, 2018

Blair resident remembers Chuck Bendorf

By Rich Hansen-Special to the Pilot-Tribune

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I read with untold sorrow the obituary of Chuck Bendorf. Chuck conjures memories of a wistful childhood, one which allowed those of us lucky enough to grow up in Blair in the 1950s and 1960s to savor a small town that included an incredible fellow like Chuck. This is a short story of an association with Chuck, and what a day was like with him in Blair, years ago.

My first recollection of Chuck is from 1953. We lived on West Grant Street, and Chuck and his parents lived across the street. They lived in the house now occupied by John and Elizabeth Nielsen. Shortly after we moved in, the Bendorfs moved to Lafayette Street, directly south of the Blair swimming pool. This would prove to be pivotal in Chuck's many friendships.

Chuck lived his life in a body held captive by the ravages of Cerebral Palsy. A person might have thought Chuck would fall with every step, but he never faltered. His arms writhing and his head turning, Chuck would make his way throughout the streets of Blair looking for friends or a ball game. There was no place where he wasn't graciously accepted. In a word, Chuck was iconic.

Chuck amazed us with his strength. As a result of his constant movement, Chuck had the most pronounced set of biceps I have ever seen. We'd ask him to make a muscle, and he would gleefully respond, lifting his arm to expose his powerful biceps. When he would pick one of us up off the ground with no effort, we all giggled, including Chuck.

I remember a day when Patricia Stricklett, who lived on the corner of 21st and Grant Street, was playing hopscotch with my sister, Jane, and several other girls. Chuck came walking up, and before we knew it, he was playing the game with incredible skill. For those younger people reading this, hopscotch was a popular game in which each player, by turn, would hop into and over squares marked on a sidewalk with chalk to retrieve a marker thrown into one of the squares. To see Chuck perform the jump turn at the end of the diagram was remarkable. (Tricia was also a world-class jacks player.)

Little League baseball in Blair was quite different in the 1950s. Coach Kenny Fischer was in charge of the program. The teams consisted of boys seven to thirteen, and we all competed against one another. There is a big difference in the skillset of a thirteen-year-old and one who is seven. But we made it work. We held our games in the morning at what was then known as Pony Park. Kenny sat on a picnic bench drinking his coffee, eating a doughnut, shouting encouragement. Later in the morning, he would bribe one of us to scamper across the street for an “Oh So Grape” from the Dexterville Store. The Dexterville Store sat between Don Moore's gas station and the alley on what was then Highway 73, NKA Highway 75. No uniforms, we had T-shirts with local sponsors. I was on Tim Brown's Nelson Brother's Clothiers team my first year. (The same Tim Brown who circles Blair daily with his Golden Doodle. Talk about a twelve-year-old with a wicked side arm fastball.) One of Kenny Fischer's favorite expressions, when someone was hit or went down was “rub a little dirt on it.” However, he was quick to notice when someone was really hurt and his response was lightning fast.

Behind the pitcher, calling balls and strikes, stood Chuck. He was seldom wrong with his judgment, and only on occasion did his friendly prejudice help a youngster get on base. Chuck kept track of all the games, and the number was well into the thousands. No one argued. There were no parents to dispute the calls. It was just a bunch of boys playing ball and Chuck, held in highest regard.

One of our customs after the games was to scrounge for pop bottles in left field. This was before the underpass was built, and cars waiting for trains to pass would throw their empties out on the west side of the highway.

Deep left field was a snake-filled quagmire of scummy water, but was a bonanza for pop bottles. Most days we would look up from our search, and there was Chuck walking the mile-and-a-half back to his house. He was followed by boys on bikes with baseball caps pulled down over their eyes and ball gloves hanging on the handle bars. We would take our bounty to the Dexterville Store to redeem them for a penny, unless we were lucky enough to find Cliqout Club or Canada Dry quart bottles, which commanded a nickel. We would in turn buy baseball cards and wish for a Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays. Alas, many of these treasures ended up on our bicycle spokes turning our Schwinns into would-be Harleys. My North School friends took their bottles to Ben Ray's store on the corner of 16th and Nebraska, as Ben was not as particular about how clean they were. Ben Ray would later pay childhood buddies Dick Husk and Bruce Stricklett to hose out those same dirty bottles paid for earlier.

We went home for lunch, and our next encounter with Chuck was at the Blair swimming pool. We were welcomed precisely at 2:00 p.m. by Maude Jensen, who was the clerk behind the counter. The pool was managed by Wayne Armor. The pool had three diving boards, equally placed above the “pit” area in the middle of the east side. There was also a refreshment stand along the north side. Chuck did not swim with us, but he would hang over the fence and watch for hours. He raised his arms and shouted with approval when someone made a great dive or a big splash.

The late Bob Triplett was an absolute natural diver. So was Mike Thompson. Their untrained abilities yielded jack knifes, one and a halves in the pike or tuck position, half and full gainers, and of course, the obligatory can openers, one leggers, and lifeguard-drenching German cannonballs. We swam until our lips were purple, and came back for more at night. During the afternoon session, Chuck would take a stick with a wire prong on the end and stab the refuse left by untidy swimmers. For his effort, Chuck would be rewarded with a two-stick Popsicle. It was amazing to watch him eat the treat with remarkable dexterity. Most of us had trouble, because the sticks separated after the frozen mixture began melting. Not Chuck; he never missed a bite.

We didn't always come back to the pool at night. The late Orville Scheffler, and later his son, Jim, let the American Legion coach R.D. “Moose” Zimmerman store a “Free Baseball Tonight” sign next to their building. Scheffler's was an amazing sporting goods, saddle and tack shop. The smell of leather and the selection of high-class Nocona and Wilson baseball gloves made this a haven for young baseball players. The G 10 model Nocona was a favorite. Moose would place the sign in the middle of Washington Street to remind fans of a home game. During those games, Chuck had another duty. Before each game, Moose handed Chuck a roll of dimes. When a foul ball went over the backstop or was hit down the line, Chuck headed in the direction of at least a dozen young attendees chasing the balls. The reward for returning a foul ball was a dime, and Chuck would track down those wayward boys and girls, who absconded with the balls. Another of his duties was to shoo Pete Blomgren and Casey and Howdy McManigal off of the top of the dugout. This would work for about a half an inning, as they swiftly moved from a picnic table to the top of the dugout, as soon as Chuck was out of sight.

Chuck lived a remarkable life, touching the hearts of so many. I was fortunate enough to visit him in Eureka, California a few years ago. He was the same loveable man I knew as a child. His sister, Tommie, related a story about Chuck during an earthquake in northern California. Tommie and her late husband, Dr. John Slater, were nervous about falling plates and collectibles, when they realized Chuck was not with them. They went into Chuck's bedroom, and in the middle of an earthquake, Chuck was sound asleep in bed with his Bible resting on his chest. God bless the life of Chuck Bendorf.

Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file at the Blair Public Library.