Charles (Casamir) Ribokas
1921 - 1999
My father passed away on Friday, April 9, 1999. He was a loving husband and a devoted father and will be missed a great deal by everyone that he leaves behind. He was a major influence in my life and is directly responsible for my respect of nature and the outdoors, my passion for photography and my love of music.
Kazimieras "Charles" Ribokas was born to parents Gaspar Ribokas and Barbra Ribokas (Yablonskas) in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 5, 1921. For as long as I can remember we have always celebrated his birthday on March 6, and I still don't understand why this is the case. As a child he attended the parish school of the Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Church in Cambridge followed by Saint Johns High School.
It is unclear what he did immediately after high school but he enlisted in the U. S. Army on January 30, 1942 to join the second "war to end all wars". The majority of his time in the Army was spent in Iceland where he served as a cook while attached to Company B of the 820th Engineer Battalion (Aviation) of the Army Corps of Engineers. As a child I thought it was great to have a mother and father who both knew how to cook, since many men in those days would not be caught dead doing "womens" work. This probably has a lot to do with why I enjoy cooking so much myself. Unfortunately there were some problems with scale as far as my dad's cooking was concerned and he didn't understand why a family of 6 could not eat 100 pounds of mashed potatoes in a single sitting. He did have some great stories about the quantities of food that they had to prepare to feed the troops as well as some other good stories just about being stationed in Iceland. One of the things he liked best about Iceland was being able to play baseball at midnight, by sunlight! Dad loved baseball.
He also spent some time in mainland Europe at the end of the war and really enjoyed visiting Paris and Munich. He was very happy when I finally made it to these cities myself as it gave us something else to talk about. While in the Army he acheived a rank of Technician Fourth Grade. He was discharged from service, following the end of the war in Europe, on October 28, 1945.
When he returned to the United States he worked at one of the big meat packing plans Boston (Somerville) for a number of years. He had some pretty nasty stories about the time that he worked there and he obviously did not enjoy it. In later years the plant was closed, torn down and was replaced by a shopping mall and on really hot days in the summer Dad claimed he could still smell the blood.
On June 14, 1947 (Flag Day) he married my mother, Rita Kaditus, and shortly thereafter also went to work for the United States Postal Service where he continued to work for 35 years, until his retirement. During their marriage of 52 years Charles and Rita had 5 children:
| 1952 : | Charles |
| 1954 : | William |
| 1955 : | Timothy |
| 1957 : | Robert |
| 1959 : | Marita |
Baby "Timmy" lived only a little more than 12 hours and my father now shares the grave with him.
Dad served as Den Father for the Cub Scouts and was also an Assistant Scout Master for Boy Scout Troop 12 in Cambridge for many years. This is what probably initiated my love of the outdoors and of nature in general. Before entering the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts myself I can remember going to Family Days while my older brothers were at summer camp. Many of our family vacations were also camping trips, first in tents and then in one of those pop-up tent trailers. After the kids grew up and got tired of going camping with them they sold the pop-up and bought a small trailer which was permanently located at a small campground outside of Richmond, New Hampshire, and became their weekend and vacation retreat.
Dad's health started to decline shortly after he retired and this can be attributed to a number of facts. First and foremost, was probably the fact that he was a very heavy cigarette smoker and had smoked for over 40 years. This combined with the fact that he was no longer getting all of the exercise that he had been as a mail carrier caused his body to deteriorate very quickly. He had numerous strokes and heart attacks during his last 12 years of life and was legally blind for most of this period as a result of his first stroke. His arteries were in very bad shape as a result of the damage caused by many years of smoking and he underwent numerous medical procedures to try and keep these clear. It was heart disease that was the final cause of death. He had been scheduled for a triple bypass operation which the hospital was unable to do because they were unable to stabilize his vital signs following the last heart attack.
For my parent's 40th Wedding Anniversary my wife, Robin, and I took them on a vacation trip to the Grand Canyon and some other parks in the Four Corners area. I did this primarily because my father's health was deteriorating and I really never expected him to make it to their 50th Anniversary. He surprised us all and did make it to the 50th but at that point he was in no condition to travel so I am still glad that I did it for the 40th.
Rest In Peace, Dad
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