8/29/1946 – 8/6/2026
Thousand Oaks, California
Christopher C. Caldwell was born in New York in 1946, and grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. He served in the Navy from 1968 to 1972, enlisting proactively when he was worried he otherwise would get drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. After serving, he moved to Lawrence and attended journalism school at the University of Kansas. He worked much of his career as an editor for Golf Course Management magazine. He loved fly fishing, as much for the nature and company as the actual fishing. In his later years, he served on the boards of multiple organizations, including one dedicated to drug abuse and mental health treatment.
That’s what he did. But as he often said, we’re human beings, not human doings.
He leaves a legacy of deep friendships, strong moral conviction, and great joy. He loved fly fishing and the sound of his grandchildren’s laughter. He forgave people their idiosyncrasies, and was often charmed by them. He believed that the healing of pain was a worthy and everlasting community project, something we all owe to one another.
There’s an old Betty White interview where she explains that she never feared death, because when she was a child, her family treated the passing of someone close to them as a joyous occasion in addition to being a sad one. Whoever died would be sorely missed, of course. But they also had gotten to learn the secret that everyone on earth wants to know: What comes next. That was something to be celebrated. Chris got to learn the secret on August 6, 2026.
A Celebration of Life service will be held Saturday, October 17, at 2:00 pm at Unity Church of Lawrence, 900 Madeline Lane, Lawrence KS 66049.
Note: The Lawrence Times is offering Lawrence and Douglas County community members space to publish remembrances of loved ones who lived in this community, free of charge. These pieces are submitted by family and friends of the deceased and not written by our staff. Photos are also provided to the publication, and some may have been altered prior to submission. Read more obituaries here.
We are honored to be able to offer this service free to community members in mourning. We believe the last thing our neighbors need in those difficult moments is another financial matter to worry about. Please support the Times to help us continue providing this service — and news access — for all.
To submit an obituary to The Lawrence Times, please fill out the form at this link. We’re sorry, but we cannot accept obituary submissions via email or other means.
Receive obituaries via email
As of May 2026, we are launching a newsletter that will include obituaries only. Obituaries will no longer appear in our daily emails. You can sign up below to receive any and all of our emails. If you already receive our daily, weekly and/or occasional emails and you want to keep receiving them, please check those boxes as well.
Please make sure you click on the button that says “Yes, subscribe me to this list” in the email you receive or you will not receive future emails. That extra step is to protect you and make sure you’re not getting emails you don’t want.
