09/08/2026
For those of you who know Papa through the farm: Less than two weeks until we gather to celebrate him on Sun Sept 20th. Details below. Be there or be square. You can wear Jimmy Buffet themed clothes, or honeybee themed clothes, or farm clothes, or go traditional and dress for a Methodist church service.🦜🐝👨🌾🚜 👔 Your choice! I look forward to laughing and crying together.
Celebration Of Life
Sunday, September 20, 2026
2:00PM
Bethia United Methodist Church
10700 Winterpock Rd
Chesterfield, VA 23832
Charles Herman Aardema, Sr. was born to Herman and Katherine on December 16, 1944, in Hampton, VA. The son of a Dutch immigrant, Charles was raised a proud American and learned several trade skills from his father. Charles led a life of service. He could fix anything. Anything!
Charles passed away peacefully beside family on August 2, 2026, in the home he built for his family. He was 81. Charles, most commonly referred to as Papa, is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Diann Rowand Aardema, his four children, Katherine Aardema-Zunk (Mark), Charles Herman (Chip) Aardema, Jr., Janet Aardema (Dan Gagnon), Russell (Paul) Aardema (Sarah), 11 grandchildren, one great grandson, and other friends and family.
He met Diann in Newport News at a bowling alley when he was 16 years old, and the rest is history. Their love for each other grew through his time at Hampton High School and continued into his engineering studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute. The first in his family to graduate from college, Charles was an ardent Virginia Tech fan. (Go, Hokies!) Charles and his college roommate, Art Avent, formed A&A General Contractors in 1973, building homes across the Richmond region.
In 1979, Charles and his family settled in Moseley, VA, and soon joined Bethia United Methodist Church (BUMC) where he employed his general contracting skills to lead the church sanctuary expansion in 1990. Charles gave of himself to his community in many ways with a focus on serving the youth. For several years, ‘Wharles’ and his ‘Bride’ were Youth Group leaders at BUMC. He was also active in Bethia’s Men’s Club and Boy Scout Troop, often joining the two groups for acts of community service.
Charles taught himself computer systems in order to found his second company, serving the IT needs of businesses in the Metro Richmond area.
Dozens of families knew Charles best for his years of service in the Boy Scouts of America. Although only briefly a scout himself, Charles became an involved and devoted scout leader beginning in 1980 with his two sons’ scouting journey. He served as Scoutmaster of
Troop 2822 in Winterpock and mentored countless young men as they progressed towards the rank of Eagle Scout. Charles taught young men to lead camping trips, cook outdoors, give back to the community and love hiking, especially on the Appalachian Trail. Charles never left scouting, but yet again resumed as Scoutmaster when two of his grandsons entered Troop 2822, also achieving ranks of Eagle.
Later in life, Charles developed a passion for beekeeping, a passion he would share with any captive audience. He employed his carpentry skills to build bee hive bodies by hand, constantly iterating on new designs to make “his ladies” happy. Tending space for the bees and harvesting honey from his hives year after year was one of his greatest joys. Often, he would correct others by stating he was a ‘Bee Landlord’ - not a ‘Bee Keeper’ - as bees keep themselves.
Charles’ family would like to thank Dr. Raddin and Dr. Adams for helping Charles and family though a hard, long battle with cancer. Hospice Aid, Carolee, was instrumental in his last few days and was a tremendous support for his family. In lieu of flowers, please consider giving to the building fund of Bethia United Methodist Church.
His family invites you to his Celebration of Life, Sunday, September 20th, at 2pm at Bethia United Methodist Church, 10700 Winterpock Road, Chesterfield VA 23832.
