Charles (“Charlie”) Edward Skopic, 88, of New Oxford, Pennsylvania, passed away on July 16, 2026. He was the husband of the late Lynn Haner Skopic, with whom he shared 65 years. He is survived by a daughter, Kyle E. Skopic, of New Oxford; a son, Todd C. Skopic (Christina), of Marriottsville, Maryland; and grandchildren, Mitchell, Benjamin (Margaret), and Julia. He is also survived by a sister, Helen Kocher, and nephew, Brett Kocher, of Los Altos, California.
Born on a farm in Trucksville, Pennsylvania, on August 21, 1937, he was the son of the late Charles and Sophia (Okoneski) Skopic. He graduated from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1959 and a Master’s Degree in Business Economics in 1962.
Charlie joined the ROTC in college and was commissioned as an officer in the Army Reserve in 1959, where he served in the Quartermaster Corps until 1967.
In 1960, he started working for the U.S. Department of Labor, where he later focused his career on pension reform. He became keenly aware of the suffering that occurred when workers and their surviving spouses lost their pensions because a company shut down or mismanaged its pension fund. He led a task force to establish a self-financing government corporation to insure earned pension benefits, aptly named the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Starting in 1975, he worked as the Executive Director when PBGC was enacted into law, and later organized a pension denial appeals process and served as Chairman of the Appeals Board from 1983 to 1994. Today the PBGC insures the pensions of over 35 million American workers and retirees, and each month it makes payments to nearly 1 million retirees with failed employer retirement plans.
After retiring from PBGC, Charlie and Lynn moved to Gettysburg in 1996. For many years, he served on the Board of Directors of the Adams County United Way and actively volunteered with both the Adams County Land Conservancy and Strawberry Hill Foundation. He was a founding member of both the Watershed Alliance of Adams County (WAAC) and the Unitarian Universalists of Gettysburg church. He considered himself an activist for political and environmental issues and causes where he saw injustice. He frequently submitted letters to the editor in this newspaper, with his last submission printed on July 3, 2026. When asked, he said he would like to be remembered for making the world a better place and “no more need be written.”
A private interment will take place at Evergreen Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Strawberry Hill at http://strawberryhill.org/donate.