Charles Chuck Schumacher, age 91, of 628 14th St. SW, Huron, died Tuesday, October 25, 2005, at the Violet Tschetter Memorial Home. His funeral mass will be at 10:00 AM Saturday, October 29, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church with Rev. Joe Holzhauser officiating. Burial will be at St. Martin Cemetery with Military Rites by the Huron Veterans Council. Friends may call Friday afternoon and evening at the Welter Funeral Home or prior to the mass at the church Saturday morning. The family will be present from 7:00 to 8:00 PM Friday evening at the funeral home. Memorials may be directed to the HRMC Foundation Dialysis Endowment. Charles Matthew Schumacher was born on August 21, 1914, to William and Carrie (James) Schumacher at Orleans, NE. When his mother died shortly after his birth and his father went to war, Charles was raised by 3 maiden aunts until he graduated from Orleans High School in 1932. Inspired and perplexed by the prairie dust storms of his Depression-Era childhood, he chose to study Forestry and, upon graduation from Iowa State University in 1939, he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Soil and Conservation Service. On June 10, 1940, Charles married Rosemary Schuster at St. Francis Xavier Basilica in Dyersville, IA. They settled where his first jobs took them: Cheyenne, OK, and Marfa, TX. In 1942, Charles enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve where he honorably served during World War II in the South Pacific Theater, surviving Okinawa and returning home in 1945, later retiring with the rank of Major. Following the war, Charles and Rosemary moved wherever SCS needed him: first Texas, then Nebraska, then Kansas, and then Nebraska again where, to everyones surprise, they adopted a baby boy in 1960, after 20 years of marriage. In 1964, the threesome settled in Huron where Charles retired in 1979, leaving SCS after 40 years of service. Chuck (as his colleagues knew him) helped hundreds of ranchers throughout the Great Plains to improve their rangeland resources. He created original range site descriptions which are still in use today by government agencies, universities, and ranchers. And as an advocate of all things indigenous, he was an expert in native grasses, writing many range publications, technical guides, and training materials. In 1991, the Society of Range Management presented him with their national Sustained Lifetime Achievement Award. He also was an avid reader and a Cornhusker fan. He is survived by his wife, Rosemary of Huron; and 1 son, Frank Schumacher of Huron. He was preceded in death by his parents; 2 older brothers, James Schumacher and Raymond Schumacher; and 1 infant son, Charles James Schumacher in 1941.