Charles L. Hyland

Charles Lowell Hyland, career Air Force officer, SCUBA enthusiast, community service member, Toastmaster, and church reader died peacefully in his sleep on October 7 2014 after a brief illness.

Charles Hyland was born in Brooklyn, New York, an only son to his parents Charles and Amy. Raised there and a student of NYC public schools, he became a Distinguished Military Graduate of The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1954, having majored in accounting and economics. In his first assignment he served as an Administrative Officer in Japan and later served in both Administrative and Executive Officer assignments in the 58th and 60th Fighter Interceptor Squadrons and the 33rd Fighter Interceptor Wing at Otis AFB and Cape Cod, MA.

In 1960 he was assigned to Harvard University as Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies where he also undertook graduate programs. In 1964 then Captain Hyland and his family moved to Vienna, Virginia and he became one of the first Air Staff Training officers to the pentagon where he spent four years in the Air Staff and 16 months in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, and was later selected for Defense legislative proposals.

After seven consecutive years in the Pentagon, he spent a tour in Southeast Asia in 1971 and 1972 as Commander of a USAF Advisory Team to the Vietnamese Air Force. He returned to the Pentagon as Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He later served various positions in the Defense Logistics Agency and in 1978 he became Director of Contracting and Acquisition for the Military Airlift Command in St. Louis Missouri.

He completed his 30 years of service to his country as Commander of the Boston Region of the Defense Contract Administrative Services in 1984. He then worked for Raytheon Company for eight years where he served as manager of quality control systems. He retired in Lexington, Massachusetts.

He is survived by his second wife Bonnie (Folkertsma) Hyland, his sons Charles and his wife Kathleen Hyland of Frederick Maryland, Arthur Hyland of Oakton, Virginia, his daughter Amy and her husband David Waldron of Vienna, Virginia, and six grandchildren, Charles, Matthew, Katie, Susie, Rachel, and Emily.

Chuck will be remembered by the many friends he had in the New England area and throughout the country as the life of the party and always with a warm smile and friendly gesture. He loved to sail in Boston harbor and SCUBA dive in exotic locations all over the world. He was an advanced diver with over 2000 dives in his logbook.

He was civic minded in his retirement serving on the board of his community association and as assistant treasurer of the Wardroom Club. He was quick to point out he was the only Air Force member serving on the board of a US Navy civic association. He was also a devoted lay reader at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Vienna, Virginia and Trinity Church in Waltham, Massachusetts.

A memorial service (invitation only) will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at 1 p.m. at the Hanscom Air Force Base Chapel, 76 Arnold Street, Building 1603, Hanscom AFB, Bedford, Massachusetts.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the National Kidney Foundation; www.kidney.org, National Kidney Foundation, Finance Department, 30 East 33rd St., New York, NY 10016.

. . . "Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there" . . . "Fair winds and following seas, my friend!" . . .