Charles F. (Chuck) Winnett
Charles F. (Chuck) Winnett, 81, a resident of Boise, passed away April 6, 2025, in Boise.
Chuck was born in Gooding, Idaho on April 5, 1944, to Charles and Fay Winnett.
Growing up he loved fishing and playing sports, but baseball was his favorite. Urban town baseball was very popular back then.
At a young age he had many jobs. He was a town paperboy and also worked in the meat department with his Father and the local Grocery store.
Growing up in Gooding kids learned to do things at a young age like driving a car before even getting a license. When Chuck finally got his license at 14 or 15 the local cop pulled him over to congratulate him. Now he didn’t have to watch him sneak around driving illegally. LOL
Chuck Graduated from Gooding High School. Immediately following graduation, he joined the Air Force where he was stationed in Mountain Home Idaho.
After two years the Air Force re-stationed him to Anchorage Alaska where he performed morse code and Decoding. In addition, he graduated with a drafting degree from the Air Force.
While in Alaska he joined the softball team where he met the love of his life Nelda Jean Lemmon. It was love at first sight. They immediately married and started raising their two sons Johnny and Bradley Winnett.
After graduating from the Air Force being honorably discharged, the family returned to Idaho where they resided in Boise.
He enlisted into Boise State University full time utilizing his GI Bill while holding a full-time job to support his Family.
As if that wasn’t enough, he tried out for the Boise State Baseball team and made it. It was the first year Boise State entered the Big Sky Conference. In the two years he played for the team he became the Team Captain and was nicknamed “grandaddy” because at 26 years old he was the oldest one on the team.
He graduated from Boise State with a bachelor’s degree in business management.
He then was hired on with the local Rail Company Morrison Knudsen/MK where he worked his way up in the company.
After some time, he took a shift in his career path and ventured into opening his own business and opened “All Seasons” a Motor Sports Shop. In this same period, he took up racing motocross dirt biking. He also had many hobbies by this time: playing baseball, softball, motocross, fishing, working on old cars, Harley motorcycle riding and bowling league and golf league at Plantation Golf Club. “Just to name a few.” LOL
In that time era, he eventually sold All Seasons Motorsports and opened a VW shop called “Reincarnation” Refurbishing Volkswagen bug cars.
A few years after that he sold it and took the money to purchase a cabin in Cascade, Idaho. Over the years he built many memories with his family fishing, hiking, snowmobiling, and boating.
Along with all of his accomplishments and life experiences at this point, he was a loving husband and wonderful father. But he was also now a grandfather. He loved being a Papa!
As time went on he ventured back into the rail business, being scouted and working for multiple companies, including Morrison Kndusen, (MK), MK Rail, Livingston Rebuild Center, (LRC), MK Rail (FNDM-MEX), Motive Power Ind. (MPI) and Boise Locomotive Div. (MPI) which took him to numerous places throughout the country like Pennsylvania, Livingston Montana and Tacoma Washington. He circled back to Boise when he joined Motive Power and worked for them until he retired. Even after retiring, he was brought back into the rail industry as a consultant. He was a master at his craft.
In retirement he enjoyed his lifetime favorites, golfing and riding his Harley Davidson.
He was able to go on many epic rides with his best friend and brother Jon. A couple of the major ones were route 66 and the famous Sturgis.
Throughout his life and career, he had many experiences and a lot of accomplishments. Traveling the United States, running companies, winning many trophies and awards, and even obtaining two holes in one in the game of golf. One other accomplishment and hobby that cannot be forgotten is the 1940 Ford Truck Hot Rod. He and his grandson Jonathan found it in a junkyard in Livingston Montana in the mid 90’s. He dragged it from house to house and state to state fixing it up gradually over a twenty year period. In retirement he finally finished it with a little help from some friends and his grandson. One of the final trophies he won was when he entered The Old 40 into the Boise Roadster Show in 2017 and won a first-place trophy.
Chuck is survived by his son, Brad Winnett; grandson, Jonathan (Alecia) Newell, granddaughter, Jessica Newell; great-grandchildren, J.T. Newell, Sophia Newell, and Brynlee Newell. Chuck is also survived by his brother and best friend, Jon Winnett; niece, Denise (Dennis) Gerwig, and nephews, Joe (Veronica) Winnett, Rich (Norma) Tillman, Randy (Wendy) Tillman and Jon Tillman.
Chuck is preceded in death by his beloved wife, Nelda; his parents, Charles and Fay Winnett and 1 sister, Norma Tillman.
He lived his life fully in his retirement enjoying the company of his friends and family.
It is safe to say he lived the American Dream!
A funeral service will be held at 1:00 pm, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, at Bowman Funeral Parlor, 10254 W. Carlton Bay Dr. in Garden City, with visitation beginning at 12:00 pm. A private interment will be held at Elmwood Cemetery in Gooding.
To watch the video tribute of Chuck’s life, please visit: https://www.tributeslides.com/tributes/show/4MMF6KQJZMLL3CNY
Arrangements are under the direction of Bowman Funeral Parlor of Garden City.