Charlotte Elizabeth Wenger

Charlotte Dusterdick Wenger

October 2, 1925 – September 15, 2023

Char was born at home in Denver to Pearl Edna Norfolk and William Theodore Dusterdick.  She became the woman of the house to her two brothers at age seven after her mother died.  She learned (and inherited) determination and stubbornness that carried her to the end of her days.  Char graduated from University of Denver in 1947 with a degree in Medical Technology which she applied in the days when a pregnancy test cost the life of a rabbit.   She met Gilbert Wenger on a blind date after he returned from the war in the south Pacific.  They wed June 12, 1948 and soon embarked on the adventure of life in the National Park Service.  Together they lived at various Park Service units around the west and produced a daughter and two sons, each from a different state.  They finished their career at Mesa Verde National Park in 1982 whereupon they built their own house in Grand Junction to a design she drew up.  

In retirement they continued their love of camping and traveling by driving to Inuvik Northwest Territories, then on to Alaska, down the length of the Mississippi River, Yellowknife, NWT, and to Newfoundland, Canada as well as many shorter trips.  All this camping was out of the back of their Chevy Suburban. 

She lost the love of her life in 2000 but hung on to 97 to be the last of the greatest generation in her extended family.  She is survived by daughter Linda Pease and grandson Nathan, sons William and Stephen (Jeanne) Wenger.