DENVER (AP) -- Charles McFerron hit retirement running.
The barrel-chested man with white hair began with 5Ks, graduated to 10Ks and completed his first marathon at the age of 68. In the next 15 years, he ran dozens more, inspiring runners half his age from Oregon to Dublin, Ireland.McFerron, 82, was killed Monday when he was hit by a freight train as he walked along railroad tracks in the suburb of Castle Rock, Colo., where he was visiting relatives on his way to a marathon in Alabama.
McFerron was deaf and didn't hear the engineer blow the whistle or sound the horn.
"Why he ended up on the tracks, no one will ever know," said his son, Charles McFerron Jr. of Salem, Ore.
The death of the energetic, benevolent man has left a void among Oregon's running community and the residents of Salem, where he lived with his wife of 50 years, Dorothy.
"There are people that zap you, take your energy, and there are people that give energy to you, and Chuck had a whole lot to give," said the Rev. Gregg Sneller, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Salem.
Born Dec. 1, 1916, in Lawton, Kan., McFerron was a General Mills Corp. animal feed sales representative for 24 years in Salem. When the mill closed, he went to work for a savings and loan.
He and his wife raised five children, instilling in them a sense of family and generosity.
"He liked to visit with relatives and would do anything for anybody. He would give them the shirt off his back," said Charles McFerron Jr.
Earlier this year, McFerron raised nearly $5,000 to benefit the Oregon chapter of the Arthritis Foundation and earn a spot in an October marathon in Dublin.
"He was always friendly with everybody," said Bill McMillen, president of the chapter. "As a spirit leader of this bunch of 45 people we took to Dublin, he stood head and shoulders above everybody."