Irmgard Weinhardt

IRMGARD WEINHARDT

Cedar Rapids

Irmgard Weinhardt, a devoted wife and mother who grew up in Germany and made Cedar Rapids her home, passed away from complications of several strokes on Oct. 9, 2016. She was 82.

She was married to, and predeceased by, Robert A. "Bob" Weinhardt Jr., a longtime Cedar Rapids manufacturing executive and stock broker, who served, among other things, as president of the Cedar Rapids Community school board. The couple raised two children: Mark, an attorney in Des Moines, and Anne Lawler, executive

director of the Idaho State Board of Medicine.

A homemaker in the classic mold of her generation, Irmgard lived an enormously full life. She supported her husband and children through countless endeavors, including scouting, ballet, speech and debate, music lessons and competitive swimming. At the same time, she herself danced for many years at the Dieman-Bennett Studio of Dance, and she was an active volunteer with the Junior League, Play Time Poppy and other puppet shows for children, and other charitable causes. She and Bob extensively remodeled three homes together, doing virtually all of the work themselves. She was meticulous and tireless as she stripped old paint from the wood, sanded, painted, wallpapered, planted trees, tended roses, sewed draperies and refinished antiques.

Irmgard was a member of the Cedar Rapids Country Club for more than 50 years. She knew its golf course like the back of her hand. She loved playing bridge, gourmet cooking, fine dining out, wearing perfume, the Peanuts comic strip, all of her dogs and Johnny Walker Black Label. A naturalized citizen of the United States, she attempted to be as "American" as possible, and she took umbrage when someone would point out her ever-so-slight accent.

She and Bob reveled in social events, including the elaborate dinner parties they would host. Blonde, vivacious and attractive, she enjoyed being the center of attention in a room, but she had eyes for only one man in it. When Bob passed away from lung cancer in 2002, she never fully recovered from her great loss, and she is no doubt thrilled to be reunited with him now.

Unable to attend college herself, Irmgard had the prototypical immigrant's drive for her children to excel in school. With her hands pressing firmly on their backs, her children both went to college in the Ivy League and amassed four post-graduate degrees thereafter. This was one of her proudest achievements in life, and to her very last days she bragged shamelessly about her children and, later, her grandchildren.

Irmgard Marie Eden was born June 15, 1934, in Warfreihe, a tiny farming hamlet in northwest Germany. She refused to talk about the challenges of life in Germany during and after the war, such as the errant British bomb that destroyed part of the family farmhouse when she was 8. Her parents divorced when she was young, a nearly unheard of event in that society. She was raised much of the time by her grandmother, with whom she always remained close.

Gifted in school, she qualified for the Gymnasium, an elite German high school. Upon graduation she moved to Wiesbaden, Germany and got a job as a secretary working – in the English language – for the United States Air Force in the U.S. occupation zone.

At 20, she packed a trunk, took a steamer across the Atlantic, and went to visit cousins on a farm near Monticello, Iowa. She planned to stay a year, but she soon tired of the familiar farm work and moved sight unseen to Cedar Rapids, where she found work as a secretary, ultimately becoming the secretary to the president of Cryovac, a local manufacturer.

At a party for single teachers, she met Bob Weinhardt, then a Collins Radio engineer. They shook hands and, awestruck, he would not let her hand go. He held on for life. She spurned various other suitors and they married on Dec. 6, 1958. They were inseparable thereafter. Many nights they shared cocktails before dinner and solved all of the problems of the neighborhood and the world. Throughout their lives they traveled together, including Colorado ski trips, European river cruises, and trips with friends to the Caribbean.

Irmgard lived on her own in Cedar Rapids for a number of years after Bob's passing, and in 2009, she moved to Boise, Idaho, to be near her daughter's family. It was there that she passed away.

Mrs. Weinhardt is survived by her son, Mark, and his wife, Karrie Weinhardt, and her daughter, Anne, and her husband, Casimir "Kaz" Lawler Jr., of Boise, Idaho. She also is survived by six grandchildren, ranging in ages from 15 to 21: Benjamin, Anneliese "Edie," and Dashiell Weinhardt and Gates, Glynnis and Casimir "Finn" Lawler III. She likely resents the fact that this obituary doesn't tell you all about them.

A visitation will be held at Cedar Memorial Park Funeral Home in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 10 a.m. to noon. The family will hold a private inurnment service.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Junior League of Cedar Rapids (www.juniorleaguecr.org).