Insurance salesman was a WW II vet

6/6/2006

Charles J. "Chuck" Dunn, 85, a retired insurance salesman and a World War II veteran who landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy a day after D-Day, June 6, 1944, died Saturday in Flower Hospital from lung complications.

A sergeant in the Army's 24th Evacuation Hospital, he was in charge of the unit's field operations as it stormed through villages and cities in western Europe. Mr. Dunn, who enlisted in the Army in 1941 and served until the end of the war, returned to Toledo in 1945 to begin a career in insurance sales.

He sold auto, casualty, and life insurance in Toledo from 1946 until his retirement in 1986. He worked for a number of insurance companies before working for the two firms with which he spent most of his professional career: Consolidated Insurance Agency and Brooks Insurance Co., from which he retired in 1986.

"He was in the insurance business because he liked being a salesman," his wife, the former Helen Rose Berger, said. "He liked people, and he was a very outgoing and friendly person."

She said they met in grade school and dated through their years at Central Catholic High School, from which Mr. Dunn graduated in 1938. They were married Oct. 13, 1942.

He was a longtime member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, the Knights of Columbus, and the Holy Name Society.

Surviving are his wife, Helen; daughters, Charlene Leonard, Mary Mizer, Christine McMahon; sons, James and Charles; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Visitation will begin at 2 p.m. Thursday in the David R. Jasin Funeral Home, where a Scripture service will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m. Friday in St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

The family suggests tributes to the church or Central Catholic High School.