Charles L. Bunch, Jr.

Charles L. Bunch, Jr. died Friday, January 19 at the Gordan Hospice House with his family by his side after a year-long battle with cancer. Charles was born in Iredell County on November 17, 1935 to Charles and Katherine Bunch and was the oldest of their eight children. Educated in Cool Springs, he worked his way through college selling cookware door to door and graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 1958. Charles began his career selling hosiery to national accounts with Slane Hosiery in High Point before becoming president of Heist McCain Hosiery in Rockwell, NC in 1969. His entrepreneurial career really started in 1976 when he bought Bunch Fabrics in Statesville from his uncle David Bunch. Charles transformed the business from a distributor to a manufacturing business and grew the business into one of the more innovative companies in the upholstered fabrics industry. After a fire destroyed the business in 1985, Charles moved the business to Mississippi before selling the company in 1989. In 1996 he started Styletech Industries, another upholstery textile mill specializing in unique home dcor fabrics. Charles concluded his career as president of Beljen Mills in 2009 although he started an online tapestry business at age 75 to "keep his hand in the game." For the past 12 years Charles taught the Christian Crossroads Sunday School class at Broad Street United Methodist Church. In his later years he restored a John Deere tractor with friends to plow his garden and drove it in numerous parades in the area. He also became an active member and advocate of Freedom Works in his later years. His core values believed that Family and Faith trump every aspect of life with Freedom being a close third. He believed that continual learning and experimenting was the lynchpin to a fulfilled life. Charles is survived by his high school sweetheart Maxine Bunch, the love of his life for their 61 years of marriage. He is also survived by son Brian Bunch, his wife Jenny, and granddaughters Laura and Emily of High Point, and by daughter Kathy Clontz and grandsons Nicholas and William of Greensboro. Also surviving are his 103-year-old mother Katherine Bunch of Lakeland, Fl., brother David Bunch and his wife Jean, sister Linda Best, brother Austin Bunch and wife Marion, sister Anne Toopes and husband Jim, sister Jane Atherton, and numerous nieces and nephews. Charles was preceded in death by his father Charles L. Bunch, and brothers William Bunch and Benjamin Bunch. A celebration of life will be held at Broad Street Methodist Church on Saturday, January 27 at 3:00 pm. The family will receive guests in the fellowship hall after the service. In lieu of flowers the family asks that any memorials be made to the Gordan Hospice House or Broad Street United Methodist Church. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.nicholsonfunerals.com and Nicholson Funeral Home is serving the family.