Charles Henry Griva Obituary (1936 - 2024)

Charles Henry “Chuck” Griva passed away peacefully at home Aug. 25, 2024, in Beaufort, S.C. The cause of death was renal cancer. He was 87 years old. Chuck was born Sept. 21, 1936, at home in the rural coal-mining community of Benld, Ill., the son of Darvino “Doak” Griva of Benld and Byrl Evelyn Griva, nee Wolfe, of Honeypoint Township, Ill. Chuck graduated in 1953 from Benld High School, where he participated alongside his only sibling, Darwin Roy Griva, in varsity football, basketball and track. In a hurry to take part in the Korean War, and with his parents' blessing, Chuck joined the United States Navy Reserves at the age of 17 while still a senior in high school. After graduation, Chuck enlisted in the Navy and in 1954 completed basic training and electrician’s mate school at Great Lakes Naval Station. Chuck’s first billet was at Norfolk Naval Station aboard the USS Arneb, a Navy freighter, which subsequently took part in Operation Deep Freeze I. Before the age of 20, Seaman Griva had sailed aboard the Arneb to both arctic circles, circumnavigated the earth, crossed the equator, passed through the Panama and Suez canals, and weathered an Antarctic summer at McMurdo Sound. It was the start to a long and distinguished Navy career. It was on return from Antarctica via the South Pacific and the Tasman Sea that Chuck met Ann Blandford while on liberty in Wellington, New Zealand, and subsequently married her in Melbourne, Australia. Seven months later, a judge in Florida annulled their union. When Chuck’s first four-year enlistment ended, he mustered out of the active-duty Navy in Florida and returned to Southern Illinois, where he worked as an electrician for the Little Dog Coal Mining Co. while still serving in the Navy reserves. He soon married Madelyn Mary Zerbolio of Benld. After they tied the knot, Chuck returned to active duty in the U.S. Navy. Madelyn bore Chuck three children, a son Venerino and daughters Linda and Anna. In November 1963, Anna died in Waukegan, Ill., at age 11 months. In April 1964, Madelyn died in San Diego at age 24. Chuck volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam, serving there from March 1966 until March 1967, first in the Brown Water Navy aboard a Swift Boat patrolling the Han River out of Da Nang, then as a member of a team tasked with capturing the hearts and minds of Vietnamese villagers under assault by communist insurgents in the countryside. After returning stateside from Vietnam and while on recruiting duty in St. Louis, Chuck met and fell head over heels for Carolyn Sue Sooter of Willow Springs, Mo. The couple wed in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 1968, and remained married nearly 52 years until Carolyn’s passing in 2020 at age 76. To them was born a daughter, Tanya Marie Griva, in Corpus Christi, Texas, while Chuck participated in the Navy Associate Degree Completion Program at Del Mar College. In August 1970, while at home in Corpus Christi, the reconstituted Griva family rode out Hurricane Celia, a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 140 mph that claimed 15 lives, damaged or destroyed eighty percent of the city's structures, and leveled base housing at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station. Chuck served 32 years in the United States Navy, attaining the rank of master chief, the Navy's highest rank for enlistees. Perhaps the highlight of his career came in 1976 when he was selected by Adm. Elmo Zumwalt, then the commander of the Pacific Fleet, to serve on his staff as fleet master chief at CINCPACFLT in Pearl Harbor. Another star turn came for Chuck and Carolyn when they were invited with Zumwalt's staff to breakfast with President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalyn Carter at Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii. Chuck and Carolyn were no strangers to natural disaster. After Chuck’s retirement, his and Carolyn’s home in the San Diego community of Scripps Ranch burnt to the ground in the 2003 Cedar Fire. Afterward, Chuck and Carolyn lit out for Texas before eventually settling with their primary caregivers --Tanya and her daughters Evelyn and Lilly -- to live out their golden years in South Carolina. Chuck is survived by three of his four children, Venerino Griva of Escondido, Calif., Linda Griva-Reed of La Mesa, Calif., and Tanya Griva of Beaufort, S.C.; six grandchildren, David Charles Reed, Roman Griva, Mercedes Griva-Gillard, Alexander Griva, Dr. Evelyn Frederick and Lilly Frederick; and two great-grandchildren, Sonora Griva-Gillard and Indio Griva-Gillard.