Charles Edward "Chuck" Munson

Charles E. "Chuck" Munson, 79, of Junction City, Kansas, passed away on Monday, February 27, 2023. Chuck died peacefully in Manhattan at the hospital where his kids were born, in the presence of his family and friends. A visitation will be held on Monday, March 6, 2023, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at the First Presbyterian Church. A funeral service will take place at 10:30 a.m., at the First Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Burial will follow at Highland Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Kansas State University Foundation, located at 1800 Kimball Ave., Suite 200, Manhattan, Kansas, 66502-3373 or to the First Presbyterian Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Chuck lived a lifetime of high achievements and dedication to the principles he believed in. He was an accomplished owner and operator of the Munson Angus Farms, a distinguished graduate of Kansas State University, a major leader in sustainable agriculture and rural development in local through national levels, a generous and active philanthropic leader in Geary County and Eastern Kansas.

He was deeply dedicated to the advancement of agriculture, to the practices of sustainable beef farming through Munson Angus Farms, to higher education and Kansas State University, to the preservation of Geary County and the Flint Hills region, to 4-H youth development, and to the positive legacy of his extended and multi-generational family.

He was a person of deep American patriotism and faith throughout his almost eighty years of life. He was a lifetime member of the First Presbyterian Church of Junction City, Kansas, and a devoted parent to his children Michelle and David, his grandchildren Aidan, Camilla, and Kieran, and a dedicated husband to his wife of 54 years, Deanna Munson.

On Monday, February 27, 2023, he passed on to be with the Almighty God that he believed in and patterned his life after.

A descendant of the original Swedish pioneer settlers, Carl August and Emilie Monson (later renamed ‘Munson’), Chuck believed that a person could make his own destiny through hard work, education, and smart risk taking. He was also genuine and ultimately responsible, if he said he would do something, he would honor it.

Charles was born to Ralph and Bernice Baresel Munson on March 28, 1943, in Junction City, Kansas, the first of three children followed by his siblings, Virginia Munson Moxley and Robert Munson. He graduated from Dickinson County Community High School (now Chapman High School), (second in his class to Mary Kay Munson and Student of the Year) and was an active and longtime member of 4-H and Future Farmer’s of America (FFA). He graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelors of Science in Agriculture Economics with high honors in 1965 and was selected as the speaker for graduation. He married Deanna McCracken, daughter of Fred and Lucile Michaels of Lyndon, Kansas, on December 22, 1968, at the First Presbyterian Church in Topeka, Kansas.

After graduating from KSU, he took over the Munson Farms operation and grew what became Munson Angus Farms LLC to scale, and continued to manage it himself for over 35 years.

An agricultural economist by education, he believed in efficiency and leverage, and was known for working to achieve at the level that would bring the highest impact for the goal. His purebred Angus beef farm was known for exceptional quality and was fed directly from the grain he grew on his farm. His grain fields consistently had high and profitable yields and his farm work standards were difficult to maintain. Those who worked for him over the years noted the challenge and were devoted.

He attributed his success in life to Kansas State and was a lifetime advocate of the university and higher education. He loved the traditions and K-State life. Chuck believed very strongly in the importance of higher education and influenced many young people he mentored over the years to get a university degree. Dr. Mugler was one of Chuck's favorite professors.

Chuck continuously advanced his own education and farming practice over his lifetime by actively following the College of Agriculture at KSU, and he continuously adopted and advocated for new technology and sustainable agricultural practices and land management. He won many awards in his 30's and 40's from the Soil Conservation Service for land management. In 2009, he was named the Distinguished Alumnus for the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University. In 2016, Charles and Deanna won the NCBA National Environmental Stewardship Award, given to only six farms in the United States for stewardship and conservation in cattle production.

Chuck was a person to move forward at the right time. He invested in technology and encouraged his children’s interest in the future. Over the course of his life, he invested in the first internet service provider in Junction City and in his daughter Michelle’s first company, Aspera, that went on to build a standard for high-speed file transfer and to be acquired by IBM.

Chuck believed strongly in working to grow the community in which he lived and raised money to enable many important advances in Geary County and the State of Kansas, using his commercial success and ability to influence others with his leadership. He led the drives to raise the funds to build the 4-H Fairgrounds in Geary County and Rock Springs Ranch. He served for many years as a Trustee of the KSU Foundation and on the Board of Directors of the K-State Alumni Association and of Central National Bank. He developed and organized the Extension Advisory Council on the state level. Locally, he served on the Soil Conservation Board for 20 years.

Chuck loved sports and particularly Kansas State sports. He held season tickets for football and basketball throughout his entire lifetime and attended every KSU Bowl game, including the Sugar Bowl in January 2023 with his children David and Michelle and grandson Aidan.

He was an active supporter of Republican political candidates at the local, state, and national levels, who were supporters of forward-thinking agricultural and societal policies. He actively campaigned for and donated to many candidates, visited many senators and congresspeople in Washington DC over the years including Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, and Pat Roberts. Chuck believed in the democratic and legislative process and was always active in his involvement and influence. Interestingly, he supported a few democratic candidates that he believed were ‘intelligent’.

Chuck is survived by his wife Deanna; son David and his wife Laura and daughter Camilla of Manhattan, Kansas; daughter Michelle and husband Serban and their sons Aidan and Kieran who live in Berkeley, California.

Chuck encouraged his children to value education, travel, and civic involvement. He and Deanna supported their efforts that resulted in many academic and 4-H achievements.

Chuck, Deanna, and David visited Michelle at the University of Cambridge to travel throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland when she was in graduate school. They hosted a foreign exchange student from Norway, and the family traveled with both kids throughout all of their endeavors, and with their grandchildren throughout the United States and abroad, including visiting Romania to see Michelle’s husband's family.

In lieu of retirement after age 70, Chuck and Deanna chose to establish new farm-to-table restaurants in recent years to share their farm’s beef and way of life. Chuck and Deanna first established Munson Prime in Junction City, and after a fire there, purchased the historic Brookville Hotel in Abilene, Kansas, which they were actively building in 2023.

From 2022 to 2023, at 78 years old, Chuck actively organized and led the community wide campaign to stop the building of an unsustainable mass slaughter house in Geary County. He and Deanna, worked with the broader community, KSU, and Fort Riley experts to organize an analysis of the environmental, labor, economic, and intangible impacts to the Geary County community.

Until his last day, Chuck was working both in the foreground and background to make certain that it would not be possible for this short-sighted and selfish project to go forward and destroy generations of economic value and quality of life in Geary County and the Flint Hills that he loved so dearly. It also goes without saying that in all of his years Chuck never treated an animal the way that a “mass slaughterhouse” operates.

This is the legacy of Chuck Munson.

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