Charles Joseph "Chas" Eckert III

Charles Joseph Eckert III ("Chas") age 27 passed away on Thursday, February 9, 2017, after a lengthy illness. His love of life and beautiful soul will live on forever.
From the time he spoke his first word "ball", we knew that Chas was going to be a special athlete. His first soccer team "The Blue Sky Hoppers" went 16-0, and most of those teammates went on to be elite players in Albuquerque and beyond. Chas played on the Varsity Hayes Middle School basketball team and on the Varsity Sandia High School ("SHS") soccer team and was offered a scholarship at Eastern New Mexico University ("ENMU"), but decided to attend the University of New Mexico ("UNM") instead. After two years at UNM, Chas took a sabbatical to travel to Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington. After returning home, Chas coached the SHS JV soccer team with Stephen Reed and implemented a game winning come from behind strategy that was suggested by his father Charlie.
Chas was very artistic and in his junior year of high school in his ceramics class he made a cheeseburger (his favorite food), which his teacher loved and thought was so funny and creative that he got an A+. He also loved taking and editing photos in his graphics design class. In high school he was known for his creative and wild outfits, which all of his classmates loved. After he graduated, SHS changed the school dress code to no longer allow bathrobes to be worn at school. He had many friends and was a social butterfly, and if you wanted something to do, Chas was the guy to call. No one had anything bad to say about Chas, he brought happiness and sunshine wherever he went.
Chas and his sister Kelsey had many inside jokes and everyday he would make her smile and laugh. When Kelsey was down, Chas was the one to brighten her up. Growing up they would walk to the store to buy candy, spend hours outside playing sports, celebrated holidays together, and would just have a good time together. They enjoyed listening to music together; car rides with his dog Lennon to get fast food or Sonic happy hour drinks, sitting around making jokes, and watching football. They became close friends throughout the years, he was the best brother to her, someone she looked up to, and someone she aspired to be more like. Although she was older, she felt like Chas was her big brother because of his maturity, intelligence, protection, and knowledge of the world. Not a day will go by that he won't be missed; he made a positive impact on each and every person that he encountered.

Chas enjoyed spending time at his family cabin, including fishing, hiking, fire tending, cooking, star gazing, etc. Being just a little tike he won the annual Horse Shoe Springs picnic egg toss with his father competing against adults up to nine times his age with a crowd of people cheering him on with each throw and catch. He loved fishing with his brother Dustin and sister Kelsey. He and Kelsey would sneak down to the river to fish and once they brought back a large string of fish to their parents delight. He loved competing with his father at almost every sport and activity such as endless games of catch, home run competition, basketball, swimming, tennis, ping pong, chess, backgammon, football, soccer and many made up games (with the exception of eating the most chili dogs which he decided was not a worthy contest to pursue ever again). The mountain experiences at the cabin fostered his love of nature and all of the beautiful things in it. As an adult he would frequently hike the east side of the Sandia Mountains with his dog and best companion Lennon. He would not take no for an answer and was successful in stopping his father from becoming a couch potato, by taking his father to go see many of the sites that he found in the Sandia's.
Chas took his father Charlie on two backpacking trips deep into the San Pedro Wilderness. Chas pushed his father to the extreme limits to see God's beautiful natural creations. Prior and during their first trip to the San Pedro Wilderness, Chas was ill and not feeling well but he didn't share his condition with his father knowing that his father would cancel the trip. That first evening he could not eat and could only lie moaning in his sleeping bag. His father told him that he was going to pray to Jesus to take his pain away. Chas said if the pain left he would believe in Christ. For hours his father gathered wood, tended the fire with Lennon at his side and chasing sticks all the while praying to God. When Chas awoke he had no pain, and to his delight he found his love for God and Jesus Christ his Savior, and he was able to push his father again to the extreme by hiking much further than the previous day.
Chas mastered the English language at a young age, always correcting his father, mother, brother and sister, which resulted in him getting coined the nickname, "Mr. Correcto". Chas always thought outside of the box, never taking anything at face value but always questioning and wanting to pursue the truth. Chas later went on to graduate with a Bachelor's degree from ENMU, which made his parents very proud. While attending ENMU, he wrote articles for The Chase Newspaper and worked in the television station and sometimes was the weather anchor.
Chas had many compassionate traits, most of which he inherited from his mother Kathy. Chas was a most caring person, whether it was going through a drive-up window and then giving a homeless person half the food he just bought, or stopping and giving a homeless person a coat, blanket and engaging in conversation. He always took water and fiber bars in his car to give to street people that he encountered. He loved to read and would buy copies of his favorite books and pass them on to friends and strangers alike. Chas loved to cook, some of the meals he made for us were tasty, and some were very interesting... . once again he would urge us to taste his latest recipe. He was the most persistent, persuading young man this side of the Mississippi.
Chas loved to do large jigsaw puzzles with his mom. He was so good at it that his father would have to whisper to him to slow down so that his mother could contribute. He loved playing Jeopardy with his family and rarely did he lose. Lord only knows how he knew and learned so many answers. He had the natural gift of gab that once again, he inherited from his mother. He could speak to anyone anywhere and make him or her feel like they have known him for years.
Chas loved people, dogs, cats and any living thing. He would go as far as to catch a moth, praying mantis and spiders that made their way inside the house, just in order to release them outside to set them free. He trained his best friend, his dog Lennon (a rescue dog from college named after John Lennon) to respond to his command words in English and Spanish, with song titles from the Beatles, such as "Imagine", "Let it Be", and "Yoko".
He trained five dogs all to sit in a row and to leave their treat until each one received their command word. He helped train his parents dog Bonnie on command to bark to everyone is a Lobo, "wolf, wolf, wolf". He carried a spare leash in his car and dog treats so that when he encountered a stray dog he could rescue it and get back to their owner safely.
He loved all types of music (and boy could he dance) and he played Spanish music in his car. He even got his father, mother and sister to enjoy some of rap music and much more. He loved playing cards with his family in which we all took turns during our deal to select the music to be played.
After graduating from college, Chas worked in marketing for Bob Cody of Callas Beauty Institute in Rio Rancho, until he was no longer healthy enough to work. His friends that got haircuts at Callas thought that Chas was the luckiest guy in the world to be working in such a great place! A special thanks to Bob Cody, for giving Chas the opportunity to use his God given skills and education.
He is survived by his father and mother, Charles and Kathleen Eckert; his sister, Kelsey Eckert; his brother, Dustin and Dustin's wife, Maureen DeNio; his nephew, Jason and niece, Delaney DeNio; and many aunts, uncles and cousins and of course LeBron Lennon Eckert, his loyal dog. He was preceded in death by his brother, Jason DeNio; his grandparents, Martin & Jere Eckert, and Harry & Marilyn Kain.
Chas, we thank you for the wonderful years that you were a part of our lives on earth. Thank you for the signs from your spirit that you are free of pain and doing well. The stories and words of love and sadness could go on forever, as we all know too well, life is way too short, so we are almost done with our sharing. Chas, we know you are reading this and we hope you approve of our jumbled and grammatically feeble mistakes. We will always love you, miss you, and keep you in our daily thoughts and hearts until the day we are together again.
A Celebration of Chas' Life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers and gifts, please send a donation in Chas' honor to Joy Junction Homeless Shelter at http://www.joyjunction.org/, the Water Melon Ranch for homeless pets at http:www.wmranch.org/, any other place of your liking, or provide water and/or a snack to a person in need (safely).