Chuck Elliott, age 68, a resident of Winfield, IL, died Wednesday, January 7, 2015, at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, IL. He was born December 15, 1946 in Philadelphia, PA. He lived in many places including Pennsylvania, Texas, and New York and spent 16 years living in England, returning to the USA to Illinois in 1996.

Chuck was the son of an Episcopal Minister and his wife. He enlisted in the US Navy at age 17. He was a very proud member of the US Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (MCB 7), also known as the US Navy Seabees, which was a joint service of the US Navy and the US Marines, so Chuck went through Navy boot camp, followed by Marine boot camp. He served two tours in Vietnam and received an honorable discharge. Chuck spent many years working for Merrill Lynch in New York and subsequently transferred to Merrill Lynch London. During the course of his career with Merrill Lynch he worked his way up from the mail room to Operations Manager of the Commodity Operations department in London. A couple of job moves later took him to Rolfe & Nolan UK as a Quality Assurance Analyst and it was with this company that he returned to the USA.

Chuck met Tracy at Merrill Lynch London and they married in May 1985 (this year would have been their 30th wedding anniversary). During that 30 years Chuck & Tracy shared a lot of adventures, including a flight in a Hot Air Balloon (for someone that is petrified of heights, that was a huge achievement), driving a formula 1 race-car at Brands Hatch (the premier racetrack in the UK), walking on the Great Wall of China, attending concerts of huge stars like Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, and Bon Jovi, amongst others, and one of his final adventures was owning a 1929 Model A Ford, which he had restored to beautiful condition. During his life, Chuck traveled to many places including France, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Norway, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, The Caribbean, England, Wales, Scotland, Portugal, The Canary Islands, Russia, China, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Vietnam and was very proud to say he'd been in every state of the United States.

Chuck's biggest achievement, that made him very proud, was adopting Nathan from Russia in 2003 and Rachel from China in 2006. Being adopted himself, he felt it was important to "pay it forward".

Chuck retired in January 2009 but really took on his final, and most challenging, career as dedicated house-husband and stay-at-home Dad. This was the career he enjoyed the most! He was able to spend a lot of time with Nathan & Rachel attending their school events, gymnastic & music events, and just being Daddy with all that entails.

Even after death, Chuck is helping others by being a registered organ donor with the Gift of Hope.

He is survived by his wife, Tracy Elliott; son, Nathan Elliott (12); and daughter, Rachel Elliott (9) of Winfield. Also surviving are his sister, Mary Woodrow; his nephew, Andrew Woodrow; and his niece, Elizabeth Keys. He is also survived by 2 adult children, Stephen and Christina Elliott; and two granddaughters, Sarah Jane and Leah, from a previous marriage.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Elizabeth Elliott.

A visitation will be held on Monday, January 12, 2015 from 5-7 p.m. at Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main St., in Wheaton, IL. There will be a brief memorial service at the end of the visitation, at 7:00 p.m. Interment will be private at a later date.

Memorial gifts may be directed to The Smile Train , PO Box 96231, Washington, D.C. 20090-6231 or at www.smiletrain.com .