Charles Worden

Charles Terry Worden (Terry) was born January 19, 1936 in Osborn County, Kansas to Fern and Kenneth Worden. Terry died on Saturday, October 22, 2016. He is preceded in death by his parents, and by his brother Gary Worden. Terry is survived by his wife Marilyn Parker, two brothers Kenneth and Keith Worden, his daughter Terri Threadgill and his son Randall Terrance Moore, and by five grandchildren. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation and to Heartland Community Church of Olathe.

Terry's Life Story
Charles Terry Worden (Terry) was born January 19, 1936 in Osborn County, Kansas to Fern and Kenneth Worden. Terry died on Saturday, October 22, 2016. He is preceded in death by his parents, and by his brother Gary Worden. He is survived by his wife Marilyn Parker, and his children Terri Dee Threadgill of Plano, TX and Randall Terence Moore of Olathe, KS and by five Grandchildren. Terri and her husband Phil have two sons, Ryan and Cameron. Randall and Melissa Moore have three children, Audrey (11), Zachary (8), and Jillian (6). Terry often expressed his love for his children and grandchildren and his hope they would be happy and well.

Terry's Mother Fern Worden graduated from Hays State University and was an elementary school teacher. His Dad, Kenneth was a farmer and raised cattle. The family home was outside of Alton, in Osborn County KS. Terry was the oldest of four sons. His brother Gary lived in Haviland, KS; Kenneth and Keith both live in California.
Terry and his brothers graduated from Haviland Bible Academy, a Friends school in Haviland, Kansas. Terry was raised with Quaker values emphasizing peace and equality and as an adult grew to believe with Fox "there is that of God in every person". Instead of military service he was a Conscientious Objector, serving as an x-ray technician in a Denver Hospital. Terry and Marilyn have been active members of Palm Beach Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Palm Beach County, Florida, since 1984. Terry and his former wife Darlene lived in Colorado Springs, and then in Kelso Washington where Terry attended college. They then returned to Colorado Springs where Terry owned a Mill Shop, building and remodeling homes and building furniture.

Terry and Marilyn met in High School and had always been good friends. Both were married to others, and then both were single for about 10 years. During Terry's stay in Wichita, he and Marilyn met again, and were later married. Their wedding vows were traditional Quaker promises to be loving and faithful. Words are not adequate to describe the happiness they have shared together over 40 years. Following several years in Wichita, they moved to South Florida in 1981 where they lived in West Palm Beach until Terry became ill. In 2009 they moved and established a home in Olathe, KS.

Terry has always been a leader, a great and reliable problem solver and very creative. Terry and the major mentor of his life, a Mennonite pastor, developed and operated the first two Boy's Ranches in the mountains near Colorado Springs. Terry met with Juvenile Judge Gillam in Denver and arranged to take boys committed to reform school to the Boy's Ranches to live, learn and grow in a safe, nurturing and challenging environment. Terry and the boys would camp in the mountains in all seasons and some climbed Pikes Peak with Terry several times. Many boys went on to live successful and happy lives and some kept up with Terry over many years. At least one of the ranches, Brockhurst Boys Ranch is still in operation.

Terry was an employee of Pizza Hut, Inc. during its Heyday in Wichita. He created the spice mixing operation and all interior items of the restaurants, much of what you still see today. Terry was involved in designing, building and testing "experimental" restaurants and in designing and managing remodeling most of the Pizza Hut stores in the US. One of the experiments he created and tested was what is known today as the individual Pan Pizza.

Over his years in Colorado, Terry and friends went on hunting expeditions in the mountains each year, and once a year drove to Dorey Lake, Saskatchewan Provence, Canada for hunting and fishing. They stayed at the same camp each year with the same Russian guide, and usually brought home their limits o moose, bear and fish. Terry, Marilyn and two friends spent two memorable weeks on a horse and pack animal trip to Sheep Lake in the West Lake Wilderness area on the Colorado Western Slope where Terry knew all the game trails and no guide was needed. Later, they were flown into the wilderness of a series of lakes in Ottawa, Canada for two weeks of fishing. They never needed them small canned ham Marilyn always took on such adventures, "just in case".

Terry was always a craftsman, an artist. He could envision dimensions and relations of objects in space in most creative and original ways. He built most of the beautiful furniture for his home, of oak and walnut. He worked with semi-precious gems, making silver rings. For many years in Florida Terry and Marilyn studied pottery, creating and firing clay pots. Terry's greatest pleasure was making large pots. He and Marilyn studied pottery making at the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. This led Terry to mix chemicals to create his own glazes and to operate his own two kilns at home. To the delight of many friends and visitors, many times Terry would tell them "you cannot leave this house without taking a pot with you"?

Some personal comments: Terry never met a meal he didn't like, and he loved desert! Sometimes a friend and he would joke, "Jesus is coming. Eat desert first". When he decided to learn to cook he worked his way through the Julia Childs French cook bock and also perfected making pasta, complete with drying racks.

Terry never required much sleep, usually enjoyed staying up late to work on a project and sleep later in the morning. Terry always liked to follow his own style of dress, but was always stylish in the usual sense as well. He liked to have his beard trimmed and neat, being well groomed. Terry was quite social, liked to be with others and to spin a good tale to entertain anyone. He was consistently happy, had a good sense of humor and created many unique sayings that expressed a thought in the best possible way. People liked being with Terry and he was very easy to live with. Another special mark of this man was that he liked to learn new things, had a good vocabulary, and had always been an avid reader of various philosophies as well as of nature, science and technology.

Terry and Marilyn enjoyed trips in England and France with Keith and Judy, Terry, Randall and Melissa visited Marilyn in Thailand when she had a Fulbright Scholar award in that country, and Terry accompanied Marilyn to Beijing where they both enjoyed a tour, including the Great Wall of China.

Terry had been sick only two times in his life. As a young man he had bleeding stomach ulcers that were due to stress of relationships. After that he declared "I'll give ulcers, not get them". I his 40s he had pneumonia and recovered after a lot of good rest. Terry's dementia seems to have begun in the late 1990s. Marilyn cared for him at home after their move to Kansas in 2009, and he moved into a care facility in April of 2013.



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