Karl Fritz Beyer
March 1, 1931-June 17, 2016
Palo Alto, CA, California

Karl Fritz Beyer went into the arms of his Maker on June 17, 2016. Born in Houston, Texas, on March 1, 1931 to Elizabeth Ann and Albert Otto Beyer, he grew up in Texas and Kansas with his two younger sisters, Lucinda and Johanna. His earliest memories included a drive through Texas during which his father told him “a great battle is taking place in the air, over an island far away” (the Battle of Britain in 1941).

He married his first wife Sandra (Sandy) Stewart in 1959. He took a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1966, after working for many years for the Coleman Company in Wichita, Kansas. He and Sandy parted company in 1968, though they renewed their friendship in later years. Fritz never stopped caring for the people he loved, even when things didn’t work out, and this earned him the loyalty of both his former wives, as well as his best friend Philip Stricklan, his family, and his Mason and church communities.

Moving to California in 1969, he took employment with Schlage Lock in Brisbane, then with the U. S. Navy, and spent the final decades of his career as Manager of Steam and Chilled Water at Stanford University, ensuring that the Linear Accelerator, the hospital, and the caterpillars from a long running science experiment were kept warm and safe. Also in 1969 he met and married his second wife, Ann Sutherland, whom he met on a blind date arranged by Philip. They moved to Palo Alto, where their first child, Kathryn Ann, was born in 1970, followed by Jonathan Albert in 1973.

In the early 80s the family joined Covenant Presbyterian Church, where Fritz remained a member until the end of his life. When he missed a deacon’s meeting he was elected Building and Grounds Coordinator. Once he got over the shock, he went to work on church projects with a will, caring for Covenant the place as well as Covenant the people. Again and again in his life he showed his love and dedication through steady and decades-long service to the people and places he cared about.

Fritz was a fiercely loving father, moving two blocks away when he and Ann parted in 1989, in order to finish raising their children together. He kept up a warm correspondence with distant family members, and, closer by, routinely slipped in to pay for his children’s auto repairs at Jim Davis Automotive or to take them out to dinner. Even after they could pay for dinner themselves they rarely beat “the fastest wallet in the West.”

When his daughter gave birth to his granddaughter Tasmin Ann Beyer in 2012, his family saw his dedication and delight in being a grandfather. From the moment he could hold her in his arms to the time when she had to run to him and climb onto his hospital bed, Fritz and Tasmin were devoted to each other.

In June of 2015 he fell and broke his hip, surviving several operations to repair it, but remaining bedridden, though determined to be with his family. In May of 2016 his son helped him move to Madison, Wisconsin in order to be closer to his granddaughter, but his failing health became clear and after a month of frequent visits from his granddaughter and daughter, he died of complications to pneumonia. His family was able to say goodbye on the phone or in person, his granddaughter firmly insisting on braving the ICU to say farewell, and his children sitting vigil over him until the last, determined to care for him as he had cared for them.

He is survived by his daughter, Kathryn Ann Beyer, and his granddaughter, Tasmin Beyer of Madison, Wisconsin, his son, Jonathan Albert Beyer and daughter-in-law, Nadine, of Campbell, California, two sisters, Lucinda Headrick of Atlanta, Georgia and Johanna Hawley of Prescott, Arizona and one niece, Annabeth Headrick, of Denver, Colorado. He is mourned by many more.

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to Covenant Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto, California.