A memorial service will be held and streamed on Friday, Oct 16 at 2:00 pm, Mountain time on Youtube. Click this link to watch: https://youtu.be/NEO5Uw3yV_Y .The great adventure story of Charlie Atkins came to an end on October 5 in Helena. He was a boxer, a poet, an ironworker, a great friend, and in the end wanted to be known as simply "a helper."Born in Anaconda to Maggie Loretta Brown and Ray Atkins, Charlie lived in Butte, The Dalles, and Deer Lodge before settling in Helena, where he attended Cathedral High and Carroll College. After graduating Carroll he joined the Peace Corps, in 1971, and went to Korea, where he met lifelong friend Neil McMahon and brought him home to be a part of the Atkins family.Charlie's boxing career started at age 5, in Butte's M&M Bar, where he was showered with two-bit pieces by onlookers. He also boxed in multiple smokers at Carroll College, coached by the great Hank Burgess, and in numerous AAU and Golden Gloves matches across the West. He won his last 4 professional fights out of Ham's Athletic Club in Washington, DC.Charlie was a Cathedral altar boy as a kid, and went on to study for the priesthood and pre-med, but instead followed his father into a career as an ironworker. Working high iron took him all across the West, and to Saudi Arabia, where he launched on explorations across the Middle East and Asia, exploring Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Tibet, and Nepal. In Afghanistan and Pakistan he hiked into territories little seen by Americans in the 1970s. In Nepal he attended Sir Edmund Hillary's climbing school, and ascended to the first base camp on Mt. Everest. In Egypt he explored ancient civilizations with his Mom, whose love of adventure influenced him from the start.In India he was befriended by Hindu mystic Shraddha Mata-ji, sanyasin and consort to India's Prime Minister Nehru. She engaged Charlie to translate, into English, her life story and controversial relationship with Nehru, for an English publication in India.Back home in the 1980s, Charlie submerged himself into writing, studying with Montana's best and brightest at Missoula and trading great paragraphs with Montana writers Ralph Beer, Jim Crumley, and Neil McMahon. He spent a winter in Browning coaching a young Blackfeet boxing team, whose courage and heart inspired him for the rest of his life. He captured those stories in his memoir, "Warriors."A fall while working on the Toston Dam broke his back and ended Charlie's ironworking career. In 1993 he graduated from Montana Tech with a master's in environmental engineering, having developed a method for bio-oxidation of recalcitrant ore. The following year he went to work for MT DNRC, where he rehabilitated state-owned irrigation canals throughout western-central Montana. He loved traveling the state, working outdoors, bringing peace and understanding to water-user conflicts, and trading tales with the ranchers.Charlie married fellow writer Krys Holmes on Easter Sunday, 2001, and their daughter Tara was born in Dec 2002, transforming their lives forever. In 2017 Charlie took Tara to India, to spend a month in the Himalayan foothills of Zanskar Valley, on a project with Hands on Global, Inc. While Tara helped the Hands On Global medical team, Charlie worked on bringing insulation and heat to the Dalai Lama's hospital there.Charlie's retirement was devoted to service, to helping others on projects large and small. He loved hearing the stories of everyone's lives-what mattered to them, what they struggled with, what they believed. He was excellent at being a friend. He was proudest of his daughter. His light remains in us all.Charlie is survived by his wife, Krys, daughter Tara, sister Chadene, brother Kelly (Paula Vander Jagt), nephews Jonathan Burkhartsmeyer, Jeffrey Burkhartsmeyer, and Kelly Atkins, niece Amy Atkins Carpenter, and great-nieces Madison and McKenzie.Memorials may be sent to either The Myrna Loy furnace project (his last project there) at themyrnaloy.com; or to Hands On Global, Inc., handsonglobal.org. Service to be announced at a later date.