If Charlie Schrenkel, L140050, developed an interest in something, there was no stopping him. He went all in. He liked to write poetry, so he filled a notebook of poems. He liked flying, so he got his commercial pilot’s license and went from island hopping tourists in the Caribbean to piloting jets for Eastern Airlines to flying around the world for a freight company.
This poem by Charlie Schrenkel describes the exhilaration he felt while flying.
So, it should be no surprise that when he developed an interest in motorhomes after helping a friend who owned an RV dealership, he dove headlong into the RV life as well.
“We were living in Connecticut,” said Charlie’s wife, Jean, “and one day he drives home in his uncle’s very old Class C motorhome. I said, ‘What in the devil are we going to do with that?’ Well, we drove it around for a few years on the weekends. Then he got intrigued by this Pace Arrow. It was ugly, but he liked it. I think over the years we’ve owned seven motorhomes. Every time we got a new one, I was amazed at how much stuff we crammed into them.”
After Jean retired in 1996, they sold their house and moved into an RV full-time. They traveled the country, visiting 49 states (only missing Hawaii) and parts of Canada. They became FMCA members, volunteering at rallies on the security and parking committees and serving as volunteer coordinators for a couple of conventions. Of course, Charlie couldn’t just be a member. He decided to run for national vice president, Southeast Area. And won. He served from 2007 to 2009.
“After two years, he decided to run for national president,” Jean said. “People kept telling him, ‘You can’t do that after just two years.’ He said, ‘Why not?’ He won. I don’t know why he was so driven like that, but he was.”
Charlie’s initial term as FMCA national president was cut short when he resigned in 2010 because of health issues. He said he didn’t think it was fair to the association or any of the members to have the president distracted from what he viewed as full-time leadership responsibilities. After recovering, he ran again. And won. He completed that term in 2013.
Shortly after his second term as president ended, Charlie was diagnosed with prostate cancer. After several years of fighting, the cancer finally took its toll. He died on July 29, 2021, at the age of 85, leaving behind a son, Mike, and three daughters, Susan, Amy, and Donna Jean. At his request, no services were held. He was cremated, said Jean, and his ashes rest in his beloved Piper Cub airplane on the couple’s Pennsylvania farm.
“He’s just waiting to take off,” she said.
When Charlie Schrenkel and wife Jean bought a Pennsylvania farm, they lived on-site in their motorhome, and he built a grass runway for his Piper Cub.
Charlie’s grandparents were from Pennsylvania, and he would spend summers running around their farm. The memories were so great, he convinced Jean to sell their Ridgefield, Connecticut, home and buy a 140-acre farm in Pennsylvania. Charlie built a hangar and a grass runway on the property so he could continue his passion for flying.
“The hospital helicopter still uses the runway,” Jean said. “If someone needs to be transported, they land here and pick them up. It’s nice to see.”
When the Pennsylvania winters got to be too much, the Schrenkels bought a pad in Florida to park their motorhome on and stay warm.
The couple were married 33 years after meeting by chance. “He was looking for a place to live,” Jean shared, “and a friend of mine said he knew I was looking to rent out the basement of my home for a little extra income. So, I became his landlord. We palled around for a couple of years and finally got married.”
“I still remember when we decided to live in a motorhome full-time,” Jean said. “Our house sold in two days, and off we went. I kept looking at it like it was a journey into the unknown. And it was. It was dramatic, but we had a ball.”