Cliff Buchan
News EditorBe it in Columbus Township, Lino Lakes or Forest Lake, Charles Cape was a man who believed in service and volunteering.
Cape spent more than 40 years in the Forest Lake area and it was a period marked by service to community. Cape, 82, died from lung cancer on Friday, Jan. 2.
In his retirement years, Cape was a key member of the Columbus Senior Club and served on the clubís board. He had served as club president the past two years and is a former senior king for Valentineís Day as elected by club members.
For the numerous senior functions, Cape was always ready to volunteer, said his son, Richard.
It was no different during the 30 plus years the Cape family lived in Lino Lakes, his son said.
For just under 20 years, Cape was active in the Lino Lakes Civil Defense agency and served as volunteer director for many of those years.
Cape had lived in Forest Lake for the past five years and moved here in early 1999. His wife Frances died that same year.
Michigan native
Charles W. Cape was born in Locata, MI, a small town five miles from the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, on May 24, 1921.
He moved with his family to Colorado as a boy where his father worked in the mines. He attended school in the Denver area.
On April 15, 1942 Cape enlisted in the Army and served in the European Theater during the Second World War. He was a staff sergeant in the 202nd Ordinance Depot Co., his son said.
Capeís service records include the Allied invasion at Normandy in June of 1944. He was also involved in the Battle of Ardennes and was in France and Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge, his son said.
He was discharged from military service in 1945.
A job with the railroad brought Cape to Minnesota in the years following the war. He was working in the Duluth area when he met Frances Van Heel who had ties to a family resort on Big Sandy Lake near McGregor.
They married and ran the resort for a time before moving to the Twin Cities area. Cape worked for a manufacturing company and spent 20 years as a hospital engineer at the University of Minnesota hospitals in Minneapolis where he retired.
The couple moved from Lino Lakes to Forest Lake in 1999.
He was a member of Circle-Lex VFW Post 6583 in Lino Lakes and American Legion Post 225 in Forest Lake.
Funeral details
A Mass of Christian Burial was Monday, Jan. 5 at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Lino Lakes. Interment was at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.
He is survived by his son, Richard (Shelley) Cape, Hugo; two daughters, Carol Fitzgerald, New Ulm, and Jeanette (Lloyd) Duraine, Woodbury; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; other relatives and friends.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Frances, and two brothers and a sister.
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