Charles Mills Ernst
1917-May 12, 2007
Porterville, California

Charles Mills Ernst died of heart failure in Porterville on May 12. He was 90.

Mr. Ernst was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated in 1939 from Whitman College, where he was a member of BetaThetaPi. He then attended Harvard School of Business and Public Administration and worked for the Department of Agriculture until 1942, when he received his commission in the U.S. Navy.

Family members said it was there, among the newly inducted WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), that Mr. Ernst "gazed across a sea of desks" and saw his future wife, Helen Elizabeth Julius. They were married in San Francisco in 1944.

Lt. Ernst and his fellow crewmen earned 11 battle stars while serving aboard the U.S.S. Monterey in the Pacific theater from the Gilbert Islands to the Philippines. He met his friend, Lt. Gerald Ford, while on board, and the two remained friends through the decades after the war. Lt. Ernst joined the Naval Reserve after his war service, retiring in 1973 with the rank of captain.

Family members said one of his proudest moments was swearing his son, Charles John, into naval service. In 1960, after an eight-year residence in New York and Washington, D.C., Mr. Ernst and his family were relocated to Menlo Park, where he worked as Western Regional administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service of the Department of Agriculture until his retirement in 1974. He loved to play golf at Stanford and was considered a "consummate gentleman," friends said.

He is survived by his wife, Helen, of Menlo Park; a son, Charles Ernst, of Sierra Vista, Arizona; a daughter, Victoria Stark, of Porterville; a brother, David Ernst, of Cape Cod; three grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Tags: veteran