Laguna man dies after collision with police car

Mike Swanson

Friends and family from Laguna Beach, Chicago and Germany spent

Wednesday afternoon celebrating the life of Robert Michael Kiermeyer,

a 20-year Laguna resident who died Aug. 7 from injuries sustained in

an early morning car accident near Baker, Calif.

Kiermeyer, 68, was on his way home from a property he owned in

Nevada just after midnight when his 2000 Volkswagen Beetle hit an

unoccupied Highway Patrol car that had reportedly crossed the median

from northbound to southbound traffic during a high-speed pursuit. He

died on a Loma Linda Hospital operating table at 9:50 p.m. after

having suffered a ruptured aorta.

“He’s been my whole entire world,” said Kae Kiermeyer, his wife of

11 years. “Emotionally, I feel like my life’s over right now, but I

can’t help but feel blessed to have known him the way I did.”

Robert Kiermeyer came to the United States from Munich, Germany in

the late 1960s as a butcher, with just 83 cents in his pocket. He

began investing the money he made from his several jobs as soon as he

could afford it, eventually focusing on Laguna Beach real estate in

the ‘80s.

“He was so hard-working that he’d call me on Christmas to go see a

property,” said Mary Lou Mathewson, his Realtor since 1985. “The only

day he wouldn’t call me was on Mother’s Day.

“Sometimes I was his good friend, sometimes I was his enemy,

sometimes I was somewhere in between,” she said. “Robert had a great

heart and it will be missed.”

Several of Robert Kiermeyer’s tenants spoke at the funeral on

Wednesday about how willing he always was to help.

Nikki Fadel moved to Laguna Beach two and a half years ago only

because Robert Kiermeyer provided an affordable place to stay, she

said. After suffering a heart attack and losing work, Fadel said she

fell more than $15,000 behind on rent, but her landlord allowed her

to stay.

“He not only didn’t kick me out, but bought me tools and helped me

start my own business, and I paid him back every penny when I could,”

Fadel said. “He wanted people to build themselves up like he did for

himself. He was a landlord to the working-class people in Laguna

Beach.”

Fadel continues to run the business Robert Kiermeyer helped her

start, Laguna Tile. She said she suspected every restaurant in Laguna

Beach had at least one cook, busboy or low-income employee who rented

from Robert Kiermeyer.

“If he didn’t make so many low-cost renting opportunities

available, so many more people would have to take buses in from Santa

Ana to work some of these jobs,” Fadel said. “He helped make it

possible for low-earning Laguna Beach employees to live in Laguna

Beach.”

Tom Grieve, a Robert Kiermeyer tenant for five years, said some

people may not have liked their landlord because of his “rough German

exterior,” but two things stood out to Grieve:

“He always kept his word and he was always there to help you,” he

said. “You can’t say that about too many people.”

The only other contingent of speakers that rivaled Robert

Kiermeyer’s tenants was from his wife’s side of the family, most of

whom said they’d spent limited time with their in-law, but enough to

see his boundless energy and good heart.

The Rev. Eddie Williams, Kae Kiermeyer’s brother, who traveled

from Chicago to officiate the funeral, said he wouldn’t have minded

seeing his German brother-in-law aspire for a position being sought

by a famous Austrian.

“I feel really badly for the state of California,” Williams said.

“I was going to fund him for governor. He was frugal and he could

talk a lot.”

Longtime friend Waltraud Strafeldas, who emigrated from Germany

with her husband, Rudolf, about 10 years before Robert Kiermeyer,

said after the funeral that one more speech would have made the

ceremony perfect.

“If Robert would have been here, he would have the nicest speech,”

she said. “He always spoke so good.”

Waltraud Strafeldas said during the funeral that she didn’t know

her friend had been married until two years after the fact, but

forgave him once she tasted the food Kae Kiermeyer prepared.

“She cooked such a wonderful dinner,” Waltraud Strafeldas said.

“What do you call it? Soul food? I never had soul food in my life. So

good.”

Robert and Kae Kiermeyer met 12 years ago when Kae rented one of

Robert’s apartments. While working 36-hour shifts in Long Beach and

Anaheim emergency rooms, Kae Williams decided there were only two

places in California she wanted to live: Laguna Beach or Carmel.

Upon arriving at one of Robert Kiermeyer’s Laguna Beach properties

to see about renting, she said she saw “a little, tough-looking white

man” working outside. Upon talking to him, she was shocked to hear he

was the landlord.

“He was intrigued by me right away,” Kae Kiermeyer said. “I could

see it. He rented me one of his places right away and then always

found some excuse to come over, whether it was to talk about

something or fix something.”

They were married less than a year later.

“I’d never dated a man shorter than probably 6-foot-4, and

Kiermeyer’s only 5-5, 5-6,” Kae Kiermeyer said. “There was just

something so alive about him that kept me interested.

“We were just a couple of vagabonds together. We traveled all the

time. We slept late. He was always in my business, but I didn’t mind.

He could do that tantrum thing like no one I’ve ever seen. He was

everything I wanted in a man.”

Kae Kiermeyer said her husband was made for this country, and

unlike many Germans who immigrate, she said, Robert Kiermeyer was

naturalized.

“This country gave him the opportunity to show his brilliance, and

he loved it for that,” Kae Kiermeyer said. “He was no butcher. He was

a businessman and an entrepreneurial genius, and this country allowed

him to show it.”

Friends and family members flew to Chicago yesterday for what Kae

Kiermeyer called “the Williams version of a funeral.” Robert

Kiermeyer’s body will be flown to Munich on Monday, where he’ll be

buried next to his mother.

“We’re going to get together in Chicago and we’re going to sing,”

Kae Kiermeyer said. “Whether we’re happy, sad or mad, we sing, and

we’re going to sing so loud my Kiermeyer’ll be sure to hear.”

In addition to his wife, Robert Kiermeyer is survived by sisters

Annelisse Bauer and Erne Rassl; nieces Monika Bauer and Alexandra

Rassl; and nephew Robert Rassl, all of whom live in Munich.