Some thoughts on the passing of Charlie Mutschler

My wife Sheila reminded me Tuesday morning that life can change in the blink of an eye.

It’s a familiar statement that is so true — in many ways.

Life changed for many members of the Cheney and Eastern Washington University communities last Sunday evening on a cold stretch of pavement on State Route 904 in Four Lakes. In an incident now well-documented by the Cheney Free Press and various members of the Spokane media, long-time Cheney resident and EWU archivist and interim dean of libraries Dr. Charles Mutschler was killed in a three-car collision.

That collision and the immediate aftermath are the first instances of life changing. Life changed for those in the two other vehicles involved, who while thankfully not hurt seriously, will forever have that time scoured into their memories. The same holds true for any motorist or resident who came to their assistance, even if only briefly, before emergency services arrived.

I know this from personal experience, having been one of those hoping to help in the aftermath of another crash over 10 years ago on SR 904 about a half mile towards Cheney that took the life of a friend.

It will indeed be difficult to go to meetings and places Dr. Mutschler frequented and know he is no longer here to attend. People who knew him better than I did are just now starting to come to grips with that reality, something that will still feel unreal even years in the future.

I knew Dr. Mutschler only through my work, but those memories are good ones. He was indeed a wealth of information on many topics. He was a lover of history, as I am, and as others who are not should be.

When we lose historical information, when we refuse to learn about our pasts and delegate historical events and people to the dustbin of our lives we are losing a part of ourselves and a connection to not only our past but also our future. There is truth in the statement that those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it.

Witness our current political and social climate.

Dr. Mutschler was always willing to impart his knowledge to those who asked, including inquisitive and sometimes misinformed journalists. Often, he’d begin with an “Ah, yes,” and then launch into a mini-dissertation on whatever subject had been broached. I never failed to leave such a discussion without feeling I was a little smarter than before.

In his role as Cheney Historical Preservation Commission chair, he almost never failed to acknowledge my presence in the audience. It was pretty easy as I, or one of our staff reporters, am usually the only ones in the audience, and Dr. Mutschler would point this out by saying “It’s nice to see that our local members of the Fourth Estate are present.”

I know these are small and rather insignificant personal tidbits, especially to those who worked more closely with him and those who were friends and family. But I feel readers — and others — should know a bit about what has been lost with his passing.

Besides a deep well of historical knowledge, what has been lost with Dr. Mutschler’s passing is a way of personal interaction that seeks to uphold the value and intellect of the individual. When asking for some background on Cheney’s depot, Dr. Mutschler could have just as easily pointed me in the direction of some reference book, but he wouldn’t.

Instead, he would put me a level playing field and impart some knowledge. That will be missed, and the sad thing is, many won’t even know it.

Life can change in the blink of an eye, as we’ve seen. That alone should make us want to never do something, or not do something, that we might later regret.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.