Charles Edward Springle

Charles Edward Springle passed on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023, after a life well spent selflessly serving God, his family, his community, and his country. In this time of profound grief, we are comforted in knowing he was joyfully and most loudly met at the Pearly Gates by his first and only love, Ruth, and his beloved son, Keith.

His funeral service will be held at 3 p.m., Sunday, May 7th at First Free Will Baptist Church in Beaufort. Interment will follow at Oceanview Cemetery in Beaufort. The family will receive friends an hour prior to the service. For those unable to attend, the service can be viewed through his obituary page on Munden Funeral Home’s website. The service will remain on the Funeral Home website for 90 days.    (See the link below for the Service Bulletin.)

He was born to Donnie E. and John A. Springle of Beaufort, on June 5, 1939, and raised in Beaufort by his aunt Jenny and uncle George Lewis following Donnie’s death in childbirth. He met Eleanor Ruth Brinson at a church event as a teenager. “She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,” he’d say, a sentiment he carried to his dying day. For Charles, the sun rose and set with Ruth. They were married for sixty-three years, raised four children, were foster parents to dozens more, and provided a second home to countless friends over the years. Ruth and Charles set the standard, rock solid through life’s highest highs and most devastating lows.

Charles was happiest on the water. He worked various jobs early in life before setting out as a commercial fisherman, working in the Gulf of Mexico with a gaggle of characters straight out of the funny papers; it was there he earned the nickname “Punk,” the origin of which he never quite fully explained to any of us. He would later go on to proudly serve his country in the Merchant Marines; his service would take him around the world on the USNS PFS Eugene A. Obregon, and upon retirement, you could find him fishing with his kids and grandkids. If the weather was bad, you could find him at the dining room table talking about fishing with his kids and grandkids.

He will be remembered by his son, Tommy; his daughter, Tammy; his daughters-in-law, Marilyn and Susan; his grandchildren, Lewis (Kim), Sarah (Chris), and Charlie; his great-grandsons, Joshua and Landon; and a lifetime’s worth of family and friends made better for having known him.

If Jesus was the greatest servant, Charles Springle was a close second. He was a model of sincerity, generosity, and love for his fellow man. He gave until it hurt, rivaled any Southern mama when it was time to feed you, and he always had a smile and a joke for everyone he met. His faith in Jesus Christ was the foundation on which he built his life and raised his family; his work spreading the gospel with his local Gideons International chapter was precious to him, and in lieu of flowers the family humbly requests that donations be made in his memory at Gideons.org.

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.