Here's a role model for you!

I wish I had met Charles Rathgeb earlier. Unfortunately, I met him only this morning in the Toronto Star's obituary section.

Chuck, as he was known to friends and family, died this week at the age of 83. He didn't leave a big family behind. Just a wife of 58 years, a nephew and two nieces. But he bequeathed a story that cries out for a novel, a movie or at least a television series.

Listen to what this man managed to cram into his 83 years.

When he left Upper Canada College, he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and served out west. Then he transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy and saw action in the North Atlantic, Norwegian Sea, the Bay of Biscayne and the invasion of Europe. Back from the war, he joined his dad as co-boss of a big construction firm and travelled all over the world on major projects. Apparently, it wasn't enough to keep him busy because he found time to join a number of international corporate boards and various charities.

And that was just his day job.

In his spare time, Chuck was a member of the Commonwealth Cricket Team, manager of the 1964 Gold Medal Canadian bobsled team, mountain climber, power boat racer, championship tuna and marlin fisherman and operator of a racing car team. Oh, yes. He also ran a thorough-bed racing horse stable. Want something more high-flying? Well, Chuck was an accomplished balloonist apparently. Both gas and hot air. Both North America and Europe. Also a glider pilot. Also...wait for it...a jet pilot. Seems he had a World record Atlantic crossing. More amazing, these weren't even his favourite sports. What he really liked was golf, which he played, I guess, between bouts of ballooning over the Alps, scaling the Rockies and jetting over the Atlantic.

Chuck wasn't just about business and sports. He also valued culture. He produced a play, Staircase, on Broadway, the movie Fahrenheit 451 and a Doors concert. Think about that. Produced a Doors concert. That means he must have met the Doors.

He sounds like Forrest Gump's older, better brother.

Reading between the lines, his last years must have been difficult ones. There are thanks, in the obit, to a palliative care unit, several health care givers and some dedicated support staff, suggesting a long illness and waning strength. I hope Chuck and his friends and his family were not defeated by the circumstances of his last days. I hope they all found comfort in his accomplishments and peace of mind to celebrate his extraordinary life. Because it was extraordinary and worthy of celebration.

Congratulations, Charles Irwin Rathgeb.

You were a renaissance man with a life fully lived. I am sorry I missed you.