Obituary of Charles Miles Mason Jr.

Dr. Charles Miles Mason Jr., age 86, of Iowa City, died early morning in his sleep on Monday, June 9, 2014 at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona. Funeral services will be held at 1pm Friday, June 13, 2014, at The River Community Church with Pastor Gail Mitchell officiating. Burial to follow at Memory Gardens Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4-7pm on Thursday, June 12th at the church. In lieu of flowers a memorial fund has been established in Charlie's memory. Dr. Mason was born September 13, 1927, in Muscatine, Iowa, the firstborn of Charles M. and Florence Mason Sr. He met his wife Beverly C. Bagge while they both attended the University of Iowa. They were married November 18, 1951 in Fonda, Iowa. Charlie was a first-team, all-state basketball player, who had a scholarship to play at the University of Iowa. He played at Iowa from '45-49 and was leading scorer his senior year, named MVP by his teammates and coaching staff and made second team all Big Ten conference. He also competed in track, golf, football and baseball in high school, with an offer from the Boston Red Sox to play baseball for their organization. He was inducted into the Iowa Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991. He had been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the ROTC program at Iowa in June of 1948. After graduating from the university, Charlie was a Math Teacher and the Basketball Coach at Oskaloosa. After coaching there for three years and obtaining his master's degree from Iowa, he went into the Air Force as a first lieutenant and spent two years as a training officer at Scott Air Force base in Missouri. He returned to Oskaloosa as a teacher, coach and athletic director from 1954-58. Oskaloosa won its only basketball championship in his last year as coach. He returned to the U of Iowa in 1959 as the school's first director of student financial aid. He continued his own academic work and received his Ph.D in Educational Administration in 1962 and remained as the head of student financial aid. He later served 30 years as Administrative Dean of the Graduate School at Iowa. Charlie was on the Board of Directors of the University of Iowa Community Credit Union for 30 years, serving as chair for 3 of those years. He belonged to The River Church (formerly Bethany Baptist Church) where he served many years on the Deacon Board, taught the College and Career Sunday School class, and then the Adult Sunday school class for over 20 years. He sang in duets, quartets and choirs. He enjoyed watching all Hawkeye sports as well as the Cubs. Surviving are his wife, Beverly Mason, of Iowa City; son, Jeff Mason and wife Ann of Iowa City; daughter, Julie Prihoda and husband Dr. Matt of Washington; son, Jim Mason and wife Jorja of Iowa City; nine grandchildren: Luke Prihoda, Chelsea Mason, Jordan Prihoda, Callyn Mason, Kyle Mason, Sean Prihoda, Natalie Mason, Michaela Prihoda and Mollie Mason; and a sister, Marilyn Howard of Muscatine. Charlie was preceded in death by his parents.