Charles Howard Linn

November 14, 1932 - March 17, 2020

Charles Howard Linn died peacefully at home on March 17, 2020.

He was born in 1932 in Ardmore, Mo., to John Howard Linn and Mary Adaline Thompson Linn and graduated from Macon Missouri High School in 1950.

Mr. Linn was a true polymath and had an insatiable curiosity about all things. He graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering in 1959 and became a surveyor for the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Later, his deep commitment to the preservation of the environment and resource conservation led him to join the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, where he authored some of the State’s earliest solid waste statutes. He worked at KDHE until 1994.

After retirement he worked as a volunteer in the kitchens of Let’s Help and the Topeka Rescue Mission, and as a Habitat for Humanity volunteer he helped construct several houses. He was a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church property committee, and enjoyed farming, building and restoring buildings, and was a devoted connoisseur of auctions and garage sales.

He is survived by his wife, Shirley H. Linn; two sons, Steven H. Linn and his wife Jane, and Charles D. Linn, and his wife, Mary Donovan. He had six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Donations in Charles H.’s memory can be made to the Topeka Rescue Mission.