Charles Robert Van Aken of Grahamsville, NY passed away at the age of 84 on Friday, March 15, 2024. He was the son of the late Robert Charles Van Aken and Clara W. (Decker) Van Aken, born in Patterson, NJ on November  21, 1939.  He was raised and grew up in the Catskills area from where his ancestors originally settled. He attended a one room school house in Lackawack, before the Roundout Reservoir was built and graduated from Tri-Valley School in 1957.

Charles was known as Bob and is survived by his wife Romalda F. Van Aken and was the father of five children, survived by William, Robert, Emmet and predeceased by Pamala and Brian. He was the grandfather of eighteen grandchildren with one predeceased and seven great-grandchildren.

Bob started out his career working in construction building the tunnels for the NYC reservoirs before enlisting in the US Army armor division in January of 1959 and was deployed to South Korea during his service. He returned home and married Romalda Nasierowski to whom he would raise a family in Sundown, NY.

He enjoyed having family and friends around, sharing the history of the area, the horses on the farm and being outdoors hunting, fishing, trapping, etc.

Visitation will be held on Thursday, March 21st from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm with a Celebration of his life beginning at 12:00 pm at Loucks Funeral Home, Ellenville. Burial with military honors will follow in Grahamsville Rural Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers contributions can be made in Bob’s memory to Tunnel to Towers.