Charles A. Hotchkiss II of Richmond, VA, died on 11 May 2004. He was 76 years old.

Born in Denver, CO, the son of the late Archibald and Nelle Hotchkiss, he spent his early years in La Jolla, CA where he attended Brown Military Academy. He was a 1949 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and served during the Korean War as a destroyer officer before joining the submarine service in 1951.

Mr. Hotchkiss was the retired president and chairman of the board of Cardwell Machine Company where he had worked for 37 years. He was past president of the Richmond Rotary Club, the Society for the Advancement of Management and served on the Boards of St. Michael's School, Stony Point School, the Richmond Red Cross and the Virginia Manufacturer's Association. He was previously active at St. Paul's Episcopal Church where he was superintendent of the Sunday School and a member of the vestry. He was a member of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church. Other memberships included the Sons of the Revolution in the State of Virginia and the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Virginia.

He is survived by his wife, Evelyn Ruffin Hotchkiss of Richmond, VA; three children, Charles A. Hotchkiss and his wife, Elizabeth of Winston-Salem, NC, Carter W. Hotchkiss and his wife, Chandler of Franklin, VA, and Nelle P. Hotchkiss of Raleigh, NC; three stepchildren, George Haw III and his wife Lynn of Richmond, VA, Evelyn H. Wilton and her husband, Arthur of Deltaville, VA; three grandchildren; and six step-grandchildren.

Services were held at Hollywood Cemetary on Friday, May 14, 2004

Source: Excerpts from the Richmond Times-Dispatch

May 13, 2004 Thursday City Edition Richmond Times-Dispatch

A graveside service for Charles Albert Hotchkiss, a retired president and chairman of Cardwell Machine Co., will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Hollywood Cemetery.

Mr. Hotchkiss, a native Californian whose love of the sea guided him to an early career in the Navy and an interest in Navy history, died Tuesday in Richmond. He was 76.

A graduate of Brown Military Academy in San Diego, Mr. Hotchkiss gained an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, where he received an engineering degree in 1949.

His years as an officer in the Navy included service aboard a destroyer in the Korean War, and he later achieved his goal of an assignment aboard a submarine, serving as chief engineer on the Cobbler.

Mr. Hotchkiss resigned his commission in 1954 due to an illness in his family. That year, he settled in Richmond and joined Cardwell, which was founded in 1829, making it one of the oldest manufacturers of tobacco-processing machinery.

He held several jobs with the company, including production manager and sales engineer, and eventually became a vice president of sales. In that role, he traveled extensively on behalf of the company's overseas subsidiaries, most often in Asia and South America.

In 1974, Cardwell was purchased by Swedish Match Corp. of Stockholm. Several years later, when Swedish Match put the company up for sale, Mr. Hotchkiss was in the forefront of a successful employee effort to buy back the company in 1982. He became president the next year.

Under his decade of leadership, the company branched out, adding grain-processing machinery to its product lines of tobacco, woodworking, hydraulic and filtering equipment. He retired in 1993.

His love for the sea and the Navy, however, never subsided.

"He still enjoyed a lot of time on the water," said his daughter, Nelle P. Hotchkiss of Raleigh, N.C. "He also threw himself into research, becoming an expert on naval history." He was particularly interested in the histories of the British and U.S. navies.

Mr. Hotchkiss was a former board member of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, St. Michael's School, Stony Point School and the Greater Richmond Chapter of the American Red Cross.

He was a past president of the local chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management and the Richmond Rotary Club. Through Rotary, he helped establish Oasis House, a local shelter for runaway teens.

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife, Evelyn Ruffin Hotchkiss; two sons, Charles A. Hotchkiss Jr. of Winston-Salem, N.C., and Carter W. Hotchkiss of Franklin; three stepchildren, George Haw III and Thomas R. Haw, both of Richmond, and Evelyn H. Wilton of Deltaville; three grandchildren; and six step-grandchildren.

Source: U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation