CASPER - A gathering to share memories of the life of Casper resident Charles L. Levendosky, 67, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 21, in the Nicolaysen Art Museum. Cremation has taken place.

He died March 14, 2004, at home, in the loving arms of his wife, from colon cancer.

Born July 4, 1936, in the Bronx, N.Y., he was the son of Charles L. and Laura (Gregorio) Levendosky. Because his father was a professional military man, his schooling was diverse -- from Oklahoma to Germany. As an adult, he also lived in the Virgin Islands and Japan.

A poet and a journalist, he received an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics and a master's in education from New York University. He shared his passion for learning in the classrooms of New York, Georgia, New Jersey and Wyoming and gave poetry readings in places from Harvard University to auditoriums filled with coal miners in Gillette.

He left New York City in 1972 to move to Wyoming and fell in love with this state.

On July 15, 1961, he married Charlotte Jaeger in New York. They divorced in 1997.

On Feb. 8, 1999, he married Dale Eva Eckhardt in Casper.

In addition to his career in journalism, he wrote 12 books and chapbooks. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1974; and, in 1988, was selected Wyoming's Poet Laureate by Gov. Mike Sullivan, serving through Sullivan's term of office.

Since 1982, he had been the editorial page editor and a columnist for the Casper Star-Tribune. His weekly column was distributed by the New York Times wire service and appeared in more than 225 newspapers around the country. He was equipped with a home office in 1999 when illness prevented him from working in the Star-Tribune building and he continued to write editorials and his weekly column despite having metastatic cancer.

His columns earned him a reputation as an expert on First Amendment issues. He was honored with the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for Print Journalism, American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award, the Baltimore Sun's H.L. Mencken Award and the Society of Professional Journalist's First Amendment Award; and was the recipient of a number of First Amendment awards given by the American Library Association and the Freedom to Read Foundation.

He received a literary fellowship from the Wyoming Arts Council in 2001 and a major poetry award from the literary magazine, Prairie Schooner. In 2001, he was the recipient of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation's Conservation Communicator of the Year Award for his columns and editorials.

Survivors include his wife of Casper; mother of San Diego; two daughters and their husbands, Alytia Levendosky of Ann Arbor, Mich., and Ixchel Whitcher of Fort Collins, Colo.; stepdaughter, Daria O'Neill, and her

husband of Portland, Ore.; stepson, Damien Eckhardt-Jacobi of Brooklyn, N.Y.; brother, Richard Levendosky, and his wife of Sebastopol, Calif.; sister, Laurie Hamilton, of San Diego; three grandsons; two nephews; a niece; and two great-nieces.

The family requests no flowers. Memorials would be appreciated to the Freedom to Read Foundation, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611; Wyoming Outdoor Council, 262 Lincoln St., Lander, WY 82520; the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, 125 Broad St., 18th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10004; Native American Rights Fund, 1506 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80302; Central Wyoming Hospice Program, 319 S. Wilson, Casper, WY 82601; or any organization that believes in preserving the beauty of our land and the right of freedom for all

beings.