Chuck’s Super Markets founder Charles Ylonen dies

In 1949, Charles Ylonen and his new wife, Pearl, put up their house, insurance policies and everything else as collateral for an old country store in Seven Pines in eastern Henrico County. It was the authentic, old-fashioned kind with gas pumps in front. Chuck sold groceries; Pearl pumped gas. They lived on the second floor.

They soon opened a store in the former Watkins' Store in Providence Forge in New Kent County. It was so near the railroad tracks that when trains rolled by, canned goods jittered off the shelves.

One store at a time, the Ylonens built the Chuck's Markets -- later Chuck's Super Markets -- chain. Thirteen stores with total annual sales of $50 million were valued at $15 million, Mr. Ylonen said in a 1988 interview. Grocery store trade magazine Food World ranked the Chuck's chain sixth in the Richmond area.

Mr. Ylonen died Monday at his home in Hartfield in New Kent County. He was 80. His funeral will be held today, Wednesday, at 10 a.m. at Woody Funeral Homes' Atlee Chapel in Hanover, 9271 Shady Grove Road. Burial will be private.

Pearl Ylonen died in 1989.

Mr. Ylonen was born in Swampscott, Mass., and enlisted in the Navy in 1944. He was a frogman based at Little Creek Naval Base in Norfolk and served in the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal region and the Persian Gulf. He was trained in underwater demolition in Greenland before self-contained air tanks for divers were invented.

"He used to tell us how they would have to find air pockets under the ice to breathe. They wore wool wetsuits," said daughter Janet Fitrer of Richmond.

He was always a risk-taker, she said, and shared the rewards that resulted. Mr. Ylonen was a co-founder of the Henrico Fire and Rescue Squad and the Chickahominy YMCA. He was a member of the Governor's Emergency Disaster Relief Program, a sponsor of the Sandston Little League and one of the founders of what is now Citizens and Farmers Bank.

He was a proud member of Rotary International and had served as district governor, and as vice president of the Sandston club. He was also proud of Rotarians' success in practically eliminating polio by providing vaccines throughout the world, his daughter said.

He was instrumental in helping the first-ever all-female Rotary Club, the East Henrico Rotary, get its charter in May 1990. The first man was admitted as a member in December of that year.

Mr. Ylonen sold Chuck's Super Markets, incorporated under the name Fair Markets Inc., to Farm Fresh in 1990.

In recent years, one thing he enjoyed most was outdoor time on his tractor. "The grass couldn't grow fast enough," his daughter said, for him to mow again with the Bush Hog attachment. He had a garden every year and gave away everything he grew, she said.

Some people thought of him as their mentor, she said. "When people met him, they wanted to keep" this former frogman "hooked as their friend."

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife of almost 19 years, Jean King Ylonen of Hartfield; two other daughters, Karen Brannan of Richmond and Kathryn Barnes of Providence Forge; and seven grandchildren.