Sonny chef

Ninety-year-old Royce “Sonny” Champ has been flipping hamburgers for the Lions Club stand at Jay County Fairgrounds for decades.

He cooked approximately 700 “Lion Burgers” in the span of less than four hours around lunchtime on Wednesday during the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show. He also worked the grill over lunch on Thursday and Friday, with plans to work another 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift today.

Champ, a member of Redkey Lions Club, started volunteering with the concession stand some 20 years ago.

“Our secretary passed away, and they asked me if I’ll try it, and I said, ‘I’ll do it for a year or two,’” he recalled. “Well, I’m still doing it, for some 20 years even.”

Over the course of a four-hour shift, he stands in front of a grill, laying down row after row of ground beef patties. Champ waits for the perfect moment before beginning to flip them. Once the burgers are cooked on both sides, he scoops them into a tray and hands them to the next station. 

Amid the sizzling and popping from the grill Thursday morning, Champ seemed hesitant to step away from his craft for a chat. A fellow Redkey Lions Club member quickly offered his assistance, and after a few laughs shared between club members, he began recalling details of his past. 

Champ graduated in 1953 from Governor I.P. Gray High School, where he coined his nickname, “Sonny.” He served in the United States Army for two years, working in South Korea as a secretary under Col. Arnold Armfelt and later at Fort Jay in New York City.

(Like Jay County, Fort Jay is named after John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.)

He joined the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers in 1956. Champ started his venture with glass furnaces at Corning Glass Works, known today as Corning Incorporated, in Corning, New York. (The company is known for developing cookware such as PYREX glass and glass ceramics CorningWare.)

He served his bricklaying apprenticeship at Ball State University, working on residence halls including the Wagoner Complex. Champ also worked on glass furnaces in Dunkirk as well as bricklaying projects for Jay County High School and IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.

Champ’s work took him across the country and overseas, including Israel, Venezuela and Mexico.

He married Karen Stigleman in 1994, spending 25 years together before her death in 2019. Champ retired about 15 years ago, settling into his home on Grandview Avenue in Redkey. When folks ask where he’s headed next, he flips the question and asks them to tell him where he hasn’t been.

“I’ve been inside all the airplanes I want to be in,” said Champ, who has one daughter and four grandchildren in Jay County.

He finds there’s a simple way to keep himself active at his age — stay involved in the community, and never stop moving.

Champ followed through on that motto this week with his volunteer work at the Tri-State show as well as plans to attend his next door neighbor’s football game Friday night.

“I come up here to help these people out,” he said. “Go to basketball games, baseball games, football games. Just keep moving around.”