Charles McCullough Rowe Sr.'s Obituary
It is with heavy hearts we announce that, on Saturday, June 29, 2024, Charles McCullough Rowe, Sr. (“Charlie”), 93, of Honolulu, Hawaii, traded in his pilot’s wings for angel wings.
Born October 16, 1930 in New York City, Charlie began an amazing journey that would take him from the borough of Queens to the landscape of the entire world which he enjoyed as an airline captain and accomplished Dixieland jazz clarinetist.
His aviation career began when he purchased a single engine airplane at the age of 18. Early in his career he flew the C-46 out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey for Zantop Airlines, and went on to pilot the DC-3, DC-4, DC-6 and DC-7. Logging over 40,000 hours in the cockpit, he served as a DC-8 captain for Universal Airlines, Trans International Airlines, Transamerica Airlines, and Korean Air. He also served as a pilot in the Gulf War, transporting service personnel and equipment to Saudi Arabia. After mandatory retirement from the left seat in October 1990 at age 60, he continued his career as a flight engineer for Emery Worldwide Airlines and then as the Directorate of Civil Aviation of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, finally retiring around 1997.
His aviation career brought him to jazz clubs around the world, including in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris and Hawaii, where he loved to play with the Swinging Tradewinds Band. His aviation career also took him and his family from New York to New Jersey, Georgia, Texas and then on to the San Francisco Bay Area where he played his clarinet at Pier 23 with his friend and band leader, Jack Jive Schaffer, and Jack’s daughter, Melody Anne. He also played with Turk Murphy & His San Francisco Jazz Band and at the Sacramento Jazz Festival, the Concord Jazz Festival, and various jazz music venues in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He was an active member of the Quiet Birdmen of the Honolulu Hangar, the Honolulu chapter of a club in the United States made up of retired airline, military and freight pilots, as well as a few astronauts. Charlie often played taps on his clarinet at their monthly meetings for the member pilots who had “Gone West”.
Charlie is survived by his three children, Michelle Rowe Hallsten, Cher Rowe Bartlett, and Charles M. Rowe, Jr. (Beth), his seven grandchildren, Kristina Cooper, Charles M. Rowe, lll, John Maximillian Bartlett, Ella Raine Bartlett, John Rowe Hallsten, Catherine Elizabeth Hallsten, Mary Eleanor Hallsten, and his two great grandchildren, Charlotte Diane Cooper and Emmitt Michael Cooper. He was preceded in death by his father, John Reese Rowe, mother, Georgiana Muldoon, brother, John Reese Rowe, Jr., former spouse, Eleanor Amelia Erhardt Rowe, and his beloved partner Rosalie Martin.
He leaves heartbroken family members and friends all over the world who he flew with, made music with and who were inspired with his kind, philosophical and thoughtful ways. He was a generous man, had a great sense of humor, loved his family, friends, America, Snoopy, Wallace and Gromit, rum cake, old movies, mystery novels and the sunsets and rainbows he viewed from his lanai.
He had a wonderful life in Hawaii Kai with his dear friends at Moana Cafe, his “Silver Sneakers” pals at 24-hour fitness, including their instructor, Celeste, and his many friends at Kaleli Kai.
Charlie’s ashes will be placed in the ocean near where he resided on Oahu and a celebration of his life is planned for August 2024.
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