Obituaries : * Charles Glenn Ranum; Ventura College Printer

Charles Glenn Ranum, a longtime Oxnard resident and printer at Ventura College, died Friday of a heart attack. He was 46.

A Ventura County resident for 32 years, Ranum worked for 24 years at Ventura College’s print shop.

His family described him as straightforward, dependable and always ready to help a friend.

“He had a lot of common sense and he dispensed it very wisely to those who would listen,” said his wife, Mary.

Ranum was born in Warren, Minn., on Feb. 18, 1949. His family moved to California when he was 3 years old. They settled in Torrance, but later moved to Ojai and then Santa Paula.

After graduating from Santa Paula High School in 1967, Ranum joined the Navy and was stationed for four years in Vietnam, where he worked as a machinist aboard a Navy vessel.

He was discharged in 1971 and moved to Ventura to live with his parents. He soon found work at Ventura College as a printer--a profession he had been interested in since high school.

A year later, he met his future wife, Mary, who was then a student at the school.

The couple married in 1974 and settled four years later in Oxnard, where they raised their son, Justin.

Ranum spent his free time building miniature houses. Each Christmas, he turned his garage into a small Santa’s Village visible to neighborhood children through a plexiglass wall.

His other hobbies included fishing, bowling and hunting with old-fashioned black-powder rifles. For the past five years, he was a member of a Friday night bowling league in Camarillo.

In addition to his wife and son, he is survived his parents, Sid and Clarice of Viking, Minn.; four brothers, Lowell of Bemidji, Minn., Jerry of San Antonio, Curtis of Columbia, S.C., and Kenny of Seattle; three sisters, Karen Robinson of Hackett, Ariz., Barbara Holland of Nipomo, Calif., and Lorie Ped of Williamsburg, Va.

Visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at 211 W. Birch St. in Oxnard. Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Guardian Memorial Funeral Directors & Crematory in Oxnard.

*

Breithaupt, Helen J., 67, of Thousand Oaks, retired hospital admitter. Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Mortuary, Westlake Village.

Donohue, Joseph Corbett, 90, of Ojai, self-employed in public relations. Sunset Plan, Westlake Village.

Hawk, Rose B., 80, of Ventura, retired secretary. Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.

Ventura County obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. They are based on information provided by mortuaries.