One last parade

CEDAR RAPIDS - Leonard Pfeifer deliberately chose the theme for his final parade float: Stairway to Heaven.

“He said this would be his last,” said Joan Benda, administrative coordinator for the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, which sponsors the annual Holiday Delight Parade. “He said they were putting a light at the top of the stairs. He's there now.”

Pfeifer, known for the award-winning floats he created for the Czech Heritage Foundation in Cedar Rapids since 1989, died Tuesday of cancer. He was 63.

Even after he was told he had just a few months to live - more than a year ago - Pfeifer continued to work on his creations.

“We thought Freedom Fest would be his last one, but he said, ‘let's do this,'?” said Pat Swift, 60, a retired Alliant Energy manager, who helped construct the floats and drove the entries in parades. “He was pretty well the mastermind behind all of them.”

In a typical year, Pfeifer entered five parades in Cedar Rapids. No two floats were ever alike.

A Statue of Liberty adorned this summer's Freedom Festival parade entry, but Pfeifer often chose Czech themes, such as geese or towering castles, to reflect his Czech heritage.

As elaborate and glitzy as the designs were, Swift said Pfeifer was thrifty with his limited budget. The two would sometimes “Dumpster dive” when Pfeifer spotted a discarded board or awning that he could use on his creations.

“He always wondered what we could do with $100,000,” to spend on a float, Swift said. That day never came.

Neither did Pfeifer's dream of entering the Rose Bowl Parade, though he did make the trip to view the event in Pasadena, Swift said.

In high school, Pfeifer was offered an arts scholarship, but his parents couldn't afford the remaining college costs, so he didn't attend and was basically self-taught.

He dedicated his free time to float-making while also volunteering his creative talents in Czech Village and at St. Matthew's School and church, where he worked as maintenance engineer.

Pfeifer transformed Kuncl Mall, 59 16th Ave. SW, into an exquisite winter scene for Saturday's festivities in Czech Village, complete with glittering snowflakes and a Czech cottage with lace-lined windows.

St. Matthew's Principal Joe Wolf said children at the preschool to fifth-grade school wanted to do something for Pfeifer when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Pfeifer was integral in decorating all of St. Matthew's events, including school plays, Mardi Gras fundraisers and dances.

“He was so creative. I don't think there was ever a project that he couldn't help us with,” Wolf said.

In return, the students held their own parade last fall, with Pfeifer as grand marshal. Each class created a float with a theme from one of Pfeifer's projects. The children paraded their creations during a school assembly in the gym.

“We wanted him to judge the floats,” Wolf said, “but he said they were all perfect.”

Pfeifer lost all of his supplies and parade vehicles when his home next to the Cedar River was inundated by floodwaters in 2008.

“I think it broke his spirit pretty well,” Swift said. “But he went right back to building floats again.”

Pfeifer bounced from home to home of his adult children after the flood, but continued to use his driveway in the Time Check neighborhood of northwest Cedar Rapids to work on his creations.

Glittering remnants of past floats dot his backyard, where finishing touches are being added to Pfeifer's final design.

Pfeifer's son, Tim Pfeifer, 40. is carrying on the tradition - at least for now - with Swift. The two plan to enter the float in Saturday's parade.

“Definitely,” his son said. “He told me before he died that that's what he wanted.”

He and Swift will finish the float Saturday, something that continually eluded Leonard Pfeifer.

“Leonard always said he never completed one,” Swift said. “There was always something more he wanted to do.”