Charles Powers: Former LIRR transportation chief, Army veteran 

Charles Powers was a fun-loving father, a career railroad man and a U.S. Army veteran who served in the Korean War.

He was a "gentle soul" who loved photographing his family. Powers worked his way up to a leadership role at the Long Island Rail Road. And while he saw combat during the Korean War, his family said he rarely talked about it.

Jim Powers’ fondest memory of Charles Powers is the pictures his father took of him and his siblings, Charlie and Laurie, playing with inflated rabbits on the front lawn of their Huntington home after attending church on Easter.

“He was taking pictures of us throwing them and the rabbits flying in the air and at his face,” said Jim Powers, 52, of Astoria. “It showed how fun he was and the lively spirit he had.”

Charles Powers died of complications due to COVID-19 on April 26 at the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook. He was 88.

Born in Boston on June 19, 1931, Charles Powers was the son of Joseph, a railroad worker, and Irene Powers, a homemaker.

Jim Powers remembered asking his father about his time serving in theArmy and never getting much of an answer.

“He did not talk about it,” Jim Powers said. “I asked him if he was in combat. All he would say was yes.”

After the war, Charles Powers married Lorraine G. Powers in 1959, and worked for railroad companies, starting as a train dispatcher and a block operator.

In 1968, the Powers family moved from Connecticut to Huntington Station when Charles Powers took a job at the LIRR as its assistant superintendent of freight. By the time he retired in 1987, he was the agency’s chief transportation officer.

“My mother told me and others they used to call him ‘the gentle giant’ on the railroad,” said Laurie Powers, 54, of Melville. “They always considered him very fair. [He was] open to listen to everybody.”

Before Lorraine Powers died in 2015, the couple had traveled to all seven continents. For decades, the two would take the whole family, including their adult children’s spouses and their grandchildren, for an annual vacation to Disney World in Florida or on a cruise to Bermuda.

“He’s a gentle soul. He very rarely raised his voice,” Laurie Powers said. “He worked a lot. But when he was home, he enjoyed spending time with us. … He liked to have fun with everybody.”

Charles Powers is survived by his three children, including Charlie Powers, 57, of Huntington Station. The family plans to hold a life celebration event at a later date.