Obituary of Charles E. Wikoff

Charles E. Wikoff, Jr., 84, of Manalapan Township passed away on Monday, June 23, 2008. He was born on February 25, 1924 in the East Freehold section of Freehold Township. He is survived by his caring wife Lydia Stillwell Wikoff; his children, Charles Wikoff, III and his wife, Terry, James and his wife, MaryAnn, and daughter Susan Clausen and her husband Bob; two sisters, Jane McDonald and Ellanor Gaeta and her husband Mike; grandchildren, Jennifer Jastrzembski and husband Kenneth, Elizabeth Smith and husband Kent, Becky Clausen and husband Dirk Lang, Peter Clausen and wife Tara, Jessica Wikoff, Emily Cappiello and husband Michael, great grandchildren, Kenneth and Matthew Jastrzembski. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II serving in the South Pacific and the invasion of Japan. Upon his discharge he completed the agriculture course at Cook College, Rutgers University. He then accepted a position in the plant pathology department of Rutgers University. Named the state’s outstanding Young Farmer in 1958 he began his farming career in the 1940’s on 150 acres of land that had been in wife‘s family for six generations. By 1950 he had purchased his first 60 acres farm and began raising potatoes. In the mid 1950’s he abandoned potatoes in favor of grain crops. Today the family owns 200 acres which has been preserved. His son, Jim, farms the home farm and rents 300 more acres. The Stillwell farm was selected in 1980 for the New Jersey Agriculture Society Century Farm Award. In 1984 he received the Monmouth County Board of Agriculture’s Outstanding Service and in 1985 was honored with the New Jersey Alumni Award by the State 4-H Youth Development Program. He devoted a great deal of time and effort to the service of his community and church. From his educational roots as a student in a one room schoolhouse in East Freehold he served 16 years as a member of and President of the Manalapan School Board during a period when the number of school children in the community rose from just four hundred to four thousand students. He was a 69 year member of the Old Tennent Church where he served as a deacon and trustee; a trustee and vice president of the Battleground Historical Society; a board member of the New Jersey Farm Bureau; president of the Monmouth County Board of Agriculture; treasurer of the New Jersey Chapter of Wyckoff House Museum, New York; and a member of the Holland Society. Visiting will be held at the Old Tennent Church, Tennent on Wednesday from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Funeral services will be held at the church on Thursday at 11:00 a.m. followed by interment at the Old Tennent Cemetery. Expressions of sympathy may be made by donation to the Battleground Historical Society, PO Box 61, Tennent, NJ 07763 or the Wyckoff House Museum, 5816 Clarendon Road, Brooklyn, NY 11203. Higgins Memorial Home, Freehold is in charge of arrangements.