Charles Derring Pennal
Marriages
Shirley Dawn Parnell - August 31, 1952
Nocona, Texas
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 3 D Obituary - October 23, 2016
Charles Derring Pennal
November 26, 1934 - October 13, 2016
Charles Derring Pennal passed away on October 13, 2016, in Grand Junction, CO.
Memorial services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on October 29, 2016, at Callahan-Edfast Mortuary.
Charles was born November 26, 1934, at home in Nocona, Texas, to Eric Derring Pennal and Ollie Jean Lemon Pennal. He
attended school in Nocona from grade one until his high school
completion. During this time he worked at the Local A & P grocery, a local movie company, and various other short-time jobs.
He joined the local Boy Scouts, and at the age of 14 attained the rank of Eagle.
He graduated high school in 1952, and that fall entered college
at North Texas State. After only a little more than a year, the Korean War brought Charles into the military. After finishing basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas, he was assigned to a field artillery unit.
On August 31, 1957, he married Shirley Dawn Parnell in
Nocona, Texas. Charles and his new bride lived in Wichita
Falls, Texas, for about a year where he worked for J.C. Penney
Co. In September of the following year, they returned to North
Texas where Charles resumed his education and this time graduated in January of 1960.
Upon graduation he and Shirley made a winter trip to Colorado,
where they were to spend the rest of their lives. They found
a 20-acre ranch and a job at a local high school in the small
town of Collbran. He worked at Collbran for the next seven
years.
A job at a new type of school brought him to Grand Junction
to a vocational school, R-5, where he taught for the next 25
years. A reluctant retirement came in 1995. This retirement has
been divided by time in the two places where he worked and also a warm winter place of Corpus Christi, Texas, or Yuma, Arizona.
Charles is survived by his wife, Shirley; two sons, Eric Derring
and Charles Kent and their wives, and four grandchildren, Kristin Hale, Aimee Pennal, Cierra Pennal, and Ryan Carroll.