Obituary of Charles F. Seaton

Charles Francis Seaton Charles F. Seaton, age 78, of Pearland, Texas boarded a Lionel train to his special place in heaven on Saturday, October 26, 2019 after a fearless fight with brain cancer. We are sure his angel wings were brown; his favorite color, secured with duct tape; his favorite fix it tool, and he was snacking all the way on pretzels; his favorite snack. Charlie was a sweet, smart man with a wonderful sense of humor and a knack for fixing things, who was always willing to help others. Charlie was born in Wilmington, DE to the late Warren and Martha Seaton. He had one sibling, his beloved sister, the late Anita Thompson. He graduated from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD and earned his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland. After college, he moved to the Houston, TX area where he went on to a long and successful career in the chemical industry. He worked for many years at the Ethyl Corporation's Pasadena Plant as a Shipping and Operations Supervisor. While there, he earned a MBA in Finance from the University of Houston. Later, he worked for Albemarle and BP Amoco as an Environmental Engineer and Supervisor. Charlie enjoyed his work and loved to joke around with his coworkers. Charlie led an active life. He was on the baseball team in Junior High School and the Track team in High School. In his young adult years, he enjoyed skiing, scuba diving and spelunking (caving). He was an avid model train collector and a longtime member of the Train Collectors Association, Lone Star Division. He enjoyed attending train shows, buying, selling, and refurbishing Lionel trains. He had an extensive knowledge of model train collecting and other collectors would often call to get his input and advice before making a purchase. His love of trains started at a young age when his father would take him to Washington, DC to see real trains at Union Station. He received a Lionel train set as a Christmas gift and it became a lifelong hobby. He will always be lovingly remembered by his nieces and nephew with laughter and smiles in their hearts for swinging them around in circles as kids, talking like Donald Duck, creating a fun train display for them, sending them on a treasure hunt for their Christmas presents, decorating and eating Christmas cookies, always wearing brown pants and flannel shirts, fixing things around his house and their homes whenever he visited, eating pretzels and hard-to-find horehound candy, giving funny birthday cards and always having so much fun and laughing every time they talked and visited with him. He will be forever cherished by his brother-in-law Richard W. Thompson, aunt Jean Seaton, three nieces, Sherri Waryasz and husband Frank Waryasz, Karen Castaneda and boyfriend Shawn Simon, April Franlin a nephew, Kyle Thompson and wife Dionne Thompson, five great nieces and nephews, Sabrina Castaneda, Katie Thompson, Will Thompson, Lainey Franlin, and Ryan Franlin, and family members Libardo Castaneda, Catherine Martin and Kevin Franlin. A private family service will be held on Sunday, November 3, 2019 at Knott's Funeral Home in Trenton, NJ, followed by interment at Rural Hill Cemetery in Whitehouse, NJ.