Frank C. Skiles Jr.

Frank C. Skiles Jr., 86, of Salisbury, died Monday, March 12, 2012, at the W.G. Hefner VA Medical Center.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Salisbury. Inurnment will follow at the church columbarium.
Born March 24, 1925, in Oak Park, Ill., he was the son of the late Frank Chambers Skiles Sr. and Elta Bell Hedges Skiles.
He was educated in the Chicago schools, graduating from Austin High School in 1942 and then attending Northwestern Technological Institute in Evanston, Ill.
Mr. Skiles was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving on the USS Cleburne APA-73 and the USS James E. Keyes DD-787, and had a rating of FC2 when he transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., after receiving a fleet appointment from the president. He graduated “with credit” June 1, 1951.
After several trips to Korea aboard the USS Twining (DD-540), he transferred to Supply Corps and signed his last underway log as LTJG (SC). Mr. Skiles went aboard as first lieutenant, then gunnery officer and finally operations officer and senior watch officer.
He resigned his commission in 1957 and joined United States Steel Corporation, retiring in 1983 as regional staff supervisor at the Lorain, Ohio, plant. After further work as director of operations at TransAmerica Mailings in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, he retired with his wife to Pinehurst in 1992 and then to Trinity Oaks, Salisbury, in 2004.
In retirement, he remained active in his local Lutheran congregations. He also was a hospice volunteer, and helped many retirees attain computer literacy for these changing times. He was an outstanding gentleman who loved his Creator, truth and lively conversation.
Mr. Skiles was preceded in death by his wife, Marcia Jeanne Koogle Skiles, on August 1, 1999.
He will be missed by many friends and his daughters, Karen Jeanne Skiles Littell, of Virginia, Catherine Anne Skiles Newbury and husband, Wayne, of Lafayette, Ind., Mary Elizabeth Skiles and husband, Steve Semanchuk, of Weaverville, along with seven grandchildren and two lovely great-granddaughters.
Online condolences may be made at www.summersettfuneralhome.com.
Summersett Funeral Home is serving the Skiles family.