Former Havre resident Charles D. Frye, 86, a retired auto mechanic died Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at Peace Hospice in Great Falls.
Funeral services will be Saturday, July 12 at 2 p.m. at Adams Memorial Chapel in Malta. Interment will be in the Malta Cemetery. There will be a reception after the services at the Malta Lutheran Church. Memorial contributions may be made to Peace Hospice in Great Falls. Adams Funeral Home of Malta is in charge of arrangements. The Masonic Graveside rites will be performed at the cemetery. Charles was born Aug. 3, 1921, in Martinsburg, Penn. The son of C. Clayton and Fannie (Harstrom) Frye. He was raised and educated there, and after high school started working as an automobile mechanic. He joined the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1940. Charles moved to Malta in 1941 where he met his future wife. He married Doris Kathryn Ruud in Malta on March 11, 1942. They moved to Havre in the 1950s, where he worked for Pehlke and Knudson at the Conoco station as a mechanic. He later worked for Northern Montana College for over ten years as their shop mechanic. Charles retired from Northern on June 1, 1988. Charles was an avid big game hunter, camper and fisherman. He was a top-notch mechanic working on cars for the stock car races, where he built and maintained the best engines. Charles was a member of the Havre Masonic Lodge #55, a member of the Teamsters Union and received a Superior Salesman Award from the Gates Rubber Co. Survivors include his daughter, Gloria Brown of Great Falls; brothers, Merle “Butch” Frye of Martinsburg, Penn. And Dale Frye of Roaring Springs, Penn.; sisters, Rose Straesser of Martinsburg, Penn., Mabel Rhodes of Duncansville, Penn., and Marge Moon of Albuquerque, N. M.; two grandchildren, Kimberly Ann Taylor of Tulsa, Okla. And Tammy Faye of Great Falls; three great-grandchildren, Brian Johnsrud of Cambridge, England, Jillian Morrisey of West Germany, and Karlie Jo Brown of Tulsa, Okla.; and great-great grandson, Asher Tulley Morrissey.
