Cap Capper is the 2014 Colony Days grand marshal
Charles “Cap” Capper holds two of the awards he’s received for his volunteer work. He is pictured standing in front of the Atascadero Senior Center, where he is on the board. Photo by Heather Young
42-year resident delivers Senior Nutrition five times a week
Charles “Cap” Capper has lived in Atascadero for 42 years and was chosen to be this year’s Colony Days grand marshal. He moved to Atascadero in 1972 with his wife, Betty, who died in 2002. Here they raised three children, Richard, Carol and Kathy. Their daughter, Kathy, died in 2007. Both Richard and Carol still live in Atascadero. At 92, Capper cares for his son, as well as volunteering around the North County. He said he was a little doubtful about accepting the honor because he cares for his son, but he accepted anyway.
Every weekday he delivers meals for Senior Nutrition through the Atascadero Senior Center. He arrives about 10:20 and is done around noon. He said he started doing it one day a week, but as volunteers dropped off he picked up another day, until he was on the schedule five days a week. His route is in Templeton and oftentimes, he said, he drives back up to Templeton after he finishes his route to take clients to the doctor or shopping.
“It gives me a purpose to get up every day,” Capper said about volunteering for Senior Nutrition.
Through volunteering at the senior center — he currently serves on the board and has done so for the last 11 years, about the same time he started delivering meals for Senior Nutrition — as well as attending the Community Church of Atascadero for the last 30 years, he said he knows a lot of people around town.
Capper is a Midwest transplant, growing up in Chandlerville, Ill., then traveling Europe from 1942 to 1946 while serving in the Army during World War II. After the war he was stationed at Fort Leonardwood, Mo., where he met Betty. They married in 1946. His first job after serving in the military was with the United States Geological Survey in Peoria, Ill. The Cappers moved to Oxnard in 1955, where he owned a truck tire business that serviced large semi trucks.
A few years later, he and Bruce Tucker decided they wanted to build again, so they moved to Atascadero in 1972 and built their tire shop, Safety Tire Co., which is where Two Wheels Motorcycle Shop is located today on El Camino Real between Davis Auto Body and Ted Miles Motors. He also owned a business across the street from where the police department is now that sold automobile radios and speakers, then worked for Cal State Auto Glass for 16 years doing insurance bids and assigning workers off-site jobs.
Capper said he has lived in Atascadero so long because his kids went to school here and he “kind of likes it. Unless you get a push, sometimes you don’t move.”
Capper was named Older Worker of the Year in 2012 by the Central Coast Community for Senior Citizens in celebration of Older Americans Month. He was also RSVP’s Volunteer of the Year for the Northern District for 2009-10.
See Capper, and the king and queen, in the Colony Days parade on Saturday, Oct. 18. The parade starts at 10 a.m. For information about this year’s event, go to www.colonydays.org.
