Parker County Today PCT March 2019 | Page 111

Charles Mitchell “Mitch” Bedinger February 27, 1970 - January 12, 2019 Charles Mitchell “Mitch” Bedinger, 48, beloved father, son, husband and friend, passed away Saturday, January 12, 2019, of natural causes. Mitch was born February 27, 1970 in Fort Worth, son of Charles and Shirley Bedinger. Mitch was outgoing, kindhearted and never met a stranger. “Mitch loved to help others,” his mother, Shirley Bedinger, said. “He enjoyed his volunteer work with Texas Neighborhood Services where he served on the board of directors, as treasurer for 10 years. He was enthusiastic about making his community a better place to live. He loved serving on the Parks and Recs Board for the City of Weatherford. Even though he had moved to Aledo, he was very excit- ed about what the city was doing with Heritage Park.” Mitch graduated from Weatherford High School before going on to Tarrant County College, after which he went to work for Bell Helicop- ter Textron where he spent two decades from 1992 to 2012. Even though he enjoyed his work at Bell and found a great deal of satisfaction in his volunteer work, there was anoth- er role that Mitch found most rewarding. In 2007, he married Amy Nash. Later that year, came the arrival of the light of Mitch’s life, his beautiful daughter Charlsi. “He loved being a father. The two of them were inseparable,” Bedinger said. “They did everything together. He was a wonderful son and a very good friend, but he was a wonderful father. It breaks my heart to think that he won’t be here to share in more of Charlsi’s life as she grows up. They had such great times together and they had big plans.” Mitch was well-known as a loyal and generous friend. “He was a great friend,”Tristan Evans said. “He’d bring you soup when you were sick. He would drop everything to go and help a friend out. He was so funny, such a good conversationalist. He never met a stranger.” When he did meet a stranger, he quickly set out to make them a friend, something Paul Paschall remembers fondly about him. “One of the most profound memories I have of Mitch Bedinger was that he was one of the very first people I met when Courtney and I moved to Weatherford. He was super. He had a huge heart. We moved here with a 4-week-old baby, in October of 2004. On Halloween night he insisted that we come over for dinner. He said, ‘You either come to our house or we’ll bring dinner to you but either way, you’re going to eat the dinner we prepared for you. That was his heart. That never stopped.” Mitch loved working to better the lot of people in the community who could use a leg-up. “Mitch has always had a desire to make things better,” said long-time friend Brad Manning, director of Texas Neigh- borhood Services, a nonprofit that Mitch volunteered with, for more than a decade served as a board member, the six years of which, he served in the capacity of secretary. “He was always pushing the organization to be better than it had been the year before. He was a great friend. He always wanted the people around him to be happy and comfortable. If everyone around him was having a good time, Mitch was having a good time. He was genuinely a care-giver.” Mitch had a kind heart that seemed to radiate through his eyes, especially when he was in the presence of his daugh- ter. “Charlsi was his world,” Manning said. “He always said that she was the greatest accomplishment of his life, what he was most-proud of was her and he loved spending time with her.” Many of Mitch’s friends remember him for his great kindness. “I remember Mitch for his loving heart, how much he loved me and my family, unconditionally and how he was such a giver… He really optimized the word friend,” Paschall said. “You don’t find people like that very often.” Paschall summed it all up beautifully when asked to describe Mitch in a single word, he said, “Unmatched.” Mitch is survived by his daughter Charlsi Ann Bedinger, parents Charles and Shirley Bedinger, wife Amy Nash Be- dinger, many, many close and devoted friends.