Charles (Chuck) Shaw Haughey, Sr. passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in
El Cajon, California on April 26, 2023 at the age of 102 years, just 2 months short of his
103 rd birthday. He was born June 23, 1920 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He is
predeceased by his wife Margaret Kauffmann who passed on August 10, 2013 at the
age of 91, and daughter Linda who passed on April 9, 2008 at the age of 52. He is
survived by four of his five children: Charles (Chuck) Jr. (Rochelle), Michael, Paul
(Denise), and Norman (Mary), respectively an attorney, engineer, attorney, and
photographer; and 7 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.
Chuck’s Great Grandfather Luke R. Haughey came to America at the age of 18 where
he worked on building the Erie Canal. He stayed on to run the locks until the Mexican
War, and joined the Army. He fought under Custer in the Civil War and mustered out
two weeks before the Little Bighorn. Chuck’s Grandfather William Henry Haughey was
born in Kalamazoo, the second child and oldest son of Luke. William Henry Haughey
developed a surgical technique for incisions like appendicitis which was known
throughout the country as “Haughey’s technique”, and later developed “Haughey’s
Suture.” Haughey’s technique avoided the pucker which was so common with the scar
tissue after surgery by sewing a first layer, then a second, and finally the skin so each
could move independently. Chuck’s father, Dr. Wilfrid Henry Haughey, attended the
University of Michigan where he met Edith Louisa Cowles. They married and had eight
children, six boys and two girls, and Chuck was the second youngest. Wilfrid was an
eye doctor and medic in WWI, where he invented a treatment for mustard gas in the
eyes. At age 102, Chuck was the last of the siblings to pass, preceded by his brother
Dave at 102 and sister Esther at 103.
All six boys joined the Boy Scouts soon after it was formed and achieved the rank of
Eagle Scout. The family spent summers at a cottage on Gull Lake, Michigan, and were
well known sailors around the lake. They bought a sailboat in terrible shape for $50 and
redesigned and rebuilt it a few times. Many races were won on that boat, named The
Little Slam. Chuck’s brother Cliff went on to become a naval architect, and had a stint
at Sparkman Stevens in NY where he designed US sailboats for the America’s cup. He
designed rigging for the Ranger class sailboat (which won the America’s Cup), the last
J-boat before WWII.
Chuck attended Kellogg Junior High School, then Battle Creek High School. He was on
the State Champion swimming teams in both schools, swimming mostly free style and
on the diving team in Jr. High. His brother Lou was state champion diver each year in
both Jr. high and high school, and his brother Phil was state diving champion each year
in high school and junior high before that.
Chuck attended the University of Michigan where he lived in a Psi Upsilon fraternity
house, then in an off-campus house with siblings. He initially studied Chemical
Engineering, but found Metallurgy more interesting, and completed the requirements for
both degrees in 9 semesters (including summer school in 1942) and graduated with two
engineering degrees, BSE Metallurgy and BSE Chemical Engineering. He washed
dishes for a sorority at noon to help pay expenses, still having classes at 11 and 1.
After graduation Chuck was hired as a Metallurgist at the Dodge Chicago Plant in
Chicago making B-29 engines during WWII. Three of his brothers fought in WWII, and
the other two were architects in the shipyards.
Well-known for telling stories (often the same story he told you previously), one of
Chuck’s stories was about the B-29s. They were under strict orders never to accept
responsibility for bad parts, but Chuck found a badly oxidized sample from a large ring
gear furnace. When the boss was away, Chuck tracked 18 bad gear blanks from that
furnace through the machining process and found excuses to cut them out as faulty. All
of their engines were assembled in an air conditioned, dust free building and were run
on test blocks before release. When the first B-29 was rolled out for flight on a cold
winter day, the air force had a big ceremony. An engine made by a competitor failed to
start, but all three made by Dodge started flawlessly.
After WWII, Chuck worked at Leigh Foundries, a cast iron foundry in Easton, Pa, and
then for Surface Combustion Corporation in Toledo, Ohio. That job involved going to
sites after the erection of furnaces, putting them into operation, and training personnel
how to operate them. He met Margaret Kauffmann during that time on a 1947 bus trip
to a Detroit YMCA dance. During business trips, he would stay in motels near the
furnaces being installed. When he returned to Toledo and was dating Margaret he
would stay with her sister Louise and Louise’s husband, Max Luppens, starting a long
friendship. They married Feb. 7, 1948. Margaret was raised an atheist, but converted to
Catholicism for the marriage. Her father, an atheist, refused to attend the wedding
because he was upset she became a Catholic. One of her brothers walked her down
the aisle.
They soon bought an 18-foot house trailer and lived in it for six months while Chuck was
still on the road as an engineer covering jobs in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Kentucky and Philadelphia, Pa. Margaret spent most of her time in the trailer, which
was not a very pleasant existence. Chuck was called in to the main office for a
conference with the VP Engineering after about six months in the trailer, and was
offered a position understudying the patent attorney. They settled on an agreement
with the company paying tuition at the University of Toledo Law School for five years of
night school while Chuck was working full time. In the middle of that, the company
patent attorney retired and Chuck became the Patent Agent for the company, using
outside counsel in Washington, DC and in Toledo as needed. They rented an
apartment, then bought a house on Letchworth Pkwy (and painted it and remodeled the
kitchen). He had to paint it before the bank would allow the mortgage to be finalized,
and didn’t get much sleep those days. Chuck was patent counsel for Surface
Combustion from 1951-1959. Catholic Charities previously placed a high school age
girl, whose father was an alcoholic, with a veteran’s outfit in Michigan, but she ran away.
Chuck and Margaret took her in, with the Catholic Charity paying her tuition, and she
helped with the children for room and board. Margaret helped her with her problems
and homework. They had five children, Charles, Jr., Michael, Paul, Linda and Norman.
Linda was severely physically and mentally handicapped with a mental age never
exceeding 3 to 6 months.
Chuck passed the Bar exam and was promoted from Patent Agent to Patent Counsel
for the Company. After about 13 years with Surface Combustion, Hughes Aircraft in
Los Angeles offered him a job at a substantially higher rate with other benefits. When
the Haughey family was driving to California for the move in 1959, they knew Margaret’s
sister, Louise Luppens and her family had been visiting California, but didn’t know
where they were. On highway 15, near Baker, CA, Chuck spotted their distinctive pink
Desoto and low trailer on the side of the road, and stopped for a surprise visit. In Santa
Monica, Catholic Charities placed a nanny with the family. Margaret hoped her sister
Louise and her family would also move to Los Angeles. But Louise’s husband Max
couldn’t find the job and/or rightly priced house he wanted, so they never moved. While
renting in Santa Monica for two years they had a home built in Northridge and moved in
about September, 1961.
Margaret was president of the Women’s Council at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic
Church in 1964-65. A Boy Scout troop was formed, sponsored by the Mens Club of the
Church – Troop 550, with over 50 kids. Chuck was one of the key founders and a few
years later served as scoutmaster for about 4 years, until he had to give it up because
of his heavy work travel schedule. Michael was Senior Patrol leader and a Life Scout,
and Chuck Jr., Paul and Norman became Eagle Scouts. Chuck and others ran an
active troop – there were camping trips about once a month, along with a scout summer
camp in the Sierra Nevada’s (Camp Whitsett, where Chuck Jr. worked on the waterfront
for three summers), a trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, and a week-long
hike on the John Muir trail in the Sierras in the summers (the Silver Knapsack). One
Troop 550 alum, Thom Reynolds, became a scoutmaster himself and wore a bracelet
with the letters WWMHD – What Would Mr. Haughey Do? Thom’s brother, for Thom’s
eulogy, said Thom “credited so much of his refinement as a leader and as a person to
HIS own former Scoutmaster, the revered and great fathering role model, Mr. Charles
Haughey, from S.F. Valley’s Troop 550. Mr. Haughey was considered by many to be a
kind of John Wooden in the Scouting leadership.”
Daughter Linda, born with severe brain damage and dearly loved by her family, was
cared for by the family and went on all vacations until age 16. Afterward, she was at the
Chatsworth facility of United Cerebral Palsy (now called Momentum). Chuck and
Margaret were involved as volunteers and Chuck served on the Board and also as
Secretary - Treasurer for over 20 of their homes until his 90s. Chuck & Margaret had
great compassion. They took in abused teenage girls from Catholic Charities in Ohio
and California, who acted as nannies. After the 1971 earthquake, they took in a
displaced family for a week.
Chuck became a national expert in data rights & licensing at Hughes, invited to speak to
different organizations, including testifying before Congress, and serving on the Board
of Governors of the Patent Section of the California Bar and the Board of Directors of
the American Patent Law Association. He authored articles, traveled often and was an
invited speaker before numerous professional groups, classes and programs. (His
children believed he practiced for these talks with his monologues at dinner!).
The first few years in California, Chuck took the family to the Tetons in Wyoming each
summer to meet up with his sister-in-law’s family, the Luppens. Chuck would drive the
family many hundreds of miles a day, stopping in parks for picnics and campgrounds at
night. Once in a while, he would splurge for a KOA campground with showers and a
pool. After Max Luppens died young in 1964, Chuck’s family did various camping trips
each summer, visiting most of the National parks in the western U.S. and Canada.
Eventually, the family Desoto was traded-in for a Chevy station wagon. The camping
tradition continued after the kids left home and became adults. There were typically
annual week-long backpacking trips in the Sierras, Rockies and Tetons, occasionally
reuniting with some of the Luppens, for about 49 consecutive years, until his late
eighties. Margaret even agreed to come on a one week 50-mile backpack in the Sierras
(although never again!).
Chuck retired from Hughes Aircraft in 1989, at the age of 69. Until recently he still
advised a couple companies on business relating to intellectual property and served on
the Board of Directors and as Secretary of one. Chuck was Margaret’s primary
caregiver as her health declined until she passed at 91 years old. Chuck continued to
play tennis and golf into his 90s and played 18 holes of golf on his 99th birthday. He
enjoyed spending time with his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
A memorial mass will be held on Weds. July 12, 2023 at 10:30 AM at Santa Sophia
Catholic Church in Spring Valley (San Diego), with interment the next day at San
Fernando Mission Cemetery (Mission Hills). In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to
Momentum – Innovative Disability Services (https://momentum4all.org/ ).