Dr. Klamer showed an early interest in animal anatomy and biology by training himself in taxidermy as a teenager. He preserved a number of exotic birds and animals that had died at Evansville’s Mesker Zoo. His adventurous spirit and boundless energy led him to travel with his wife to almost 200 countries and such unusual and exotic destinations as Maoist China in 1973, the Galapagos Islands, the Arctic, and Antarctica. He visited Africa 27 times on self-guided safaris for big game viewing and as a medical missionary for the Methodist Church. As a missionary, Dr. Klamer performed surgery, often under primitive conditions in remote villages. He also organized and implemented mass immunization campaigns against measles epidemics in Congo which were killing thousands of children. He loved to tell of the villagers in a remote area in the jungle who gave him an African name which translated into the remarkably accurate description “Chief Doctor – Very Active Man.”
Dr. and Mrs. Klamer were active in civic and business affairs in Jasper. In 1952, they hosted a visit by then Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, to dedicate the gravesites of Mr. Dulles’ grandparents on the Klamer farm in Otwell, Indiana. They were long-time supporters of the University of Evansville and Wabash College. Through Mrs. Klamer’s over 30 years of service on the U. of E. Board of Trustees, they helped to expand the Evansville campus and to establish a second campus at Harlaxton Manor, near Grantham, England. Dr. Klamer was a member of the Petroleum Club of Evansville, the Columbia Club in Indianapolis, the Ha’penny Club and St. Croix Yacht Club in the Virgin Islands, and the Mount Kenya Safari Club.
From his war time experience in the Navy he came to know and love the Caribbean. He built a small hotel around a 200-year-old plantation house and sugar mill in Christiansted on St. Croix in the Virgin Islands and owned homes there for almost half a century. He collected antique clocks and local art during his travels. He was an enthusiastic and energetic gardener who, along with his long-time employee Chris J. Braun, planted hundreds of flowers, shrubbery, and trees on the grounds of his Jasper and Santa Claus homes. Dr. Klamer’s neighbors always knew when “Doc” was planting in his yard when they heard him, with complete joy, singing merrily at the top of his lungs.
Dr. Klamer was the last surviving child of Albert and Emma Klamer of Evansville, pre-deceased by his brothers Albert and John and his sisters Ruth Stumpf and Lucile Harding Hoggatt. He is survived by his wife, Cecile Hovda Klamer, and his three daughters, Emily Klamer McCutchan, Rebecca Klamer, and Charlotte Klamer, and son-in-law Dr. Allen McCutchan. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Emily’s daughter Katie Dalsemer and son Stephen Dalsemer and his wife Kelly. Dr. Klamer had two great-grandchildren, Stephen’s sons Breven and Baylor Dalsemer.
The Klamer family will receive visitors at Buecher Funeral Home in Jasper from 2:00 to 4:00 and from 6:00 to 8:00 on Friday, November 25. Funeral services will be held at Trinity United Church of Christ in Jasper at 11:00 on Saturday, November 26. Burial services will follow at 3:00 at Alexander Memorial Park Cemetery in Evansville.
Dr. Klamer was always mindful and always grateful for the scholarship he was awarded that allowed him to attend his beloved Wabash College. For those who wish, contributions may be made in his memory to the General Scholarship Fund at Wabash College, Post Office Box 352, Crawfordsville, Indiana, 47933.
