Stephan E. Gaertner

With great sadness, we share that our father and Barbara's husband, Stephan, left us in the early morning of November 6, 2022 at the age of 93 following several weeks of hospice care and a year of increasing cardiac issues. Athletic to the end, his aFib heart issues began last year after getting too dehydrated during an athletic game of ping-pong on a very hot day at age 92. He was a man who understood life, having it almost taken away from him many times. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, to Czech-Jewish parents, Erich and Edith Gaertner, in 1929.

After contracting tuberculosis at age nine, he was sent to a sanitarium to convalesce for a full year in the clean air of the Swiss-German-speaking Alpine city of Davos, Switzerland, which eventually saved his and his mother's life. While his mother was picking him up after a year in Davos, his father, brother, most of his family, friends, teachers, and neighbors were rounded up by the Nazis. Most, including his father, perished in concentration camps.

Stephan spent the next few years as a refugee making money and regaining his physical strength by running up and down the snowy Swiss mountains delivering milk and mail to the ski hotels at the top of the Alps. He soon discovered how to climb up the mountains and use cheap, old skis to ski down. That's where he developed a love of and expertise in skiing. He later started high school in French-speaking Lausanne, Switzerland.

After moving to Czechoslovakia at the end of WWII, he earned his high school diploma at the French-speaking Lycée Français in Prague. Stephan next earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering and Automatic Control Systems from the Czech Technical University. He had a wide variety of work experiences including translator and diplomatic assistant, steel mill laborer (he was sent by the socialist government for "rehabilitation" due to his political resistance), and lead process engineer for a factory that successfully developed a risky new process for converting natural gas and oxygen to create hydrogen. Stephan enjoyed taking risks! In the Czech army, he served as an instructor for anti-chemical warfare, platoon commander, and was promoted to lieutenant in the reserves.

Stephan has a book of stories that he wrote in recent years. In one such story, Stephan talks about riding his scooter around Prague and doing translation jobs that resulted in him meeting with international diplomats and even the American poet Allen Ginsberg. He also tells the story of how, in 1965, Stephan and his new wife, Vera, escaped from communist Czechoslovakia via Vienna. Though his dream was to return to Switzerland, they were eventually granted asylum by the USA.

Once settled in California, Stephan worked as a chemical and control systems engineer. Always enjoying helping others and teaching, he later became a popular instructor in control systems engineering continuing education classes. He also volunteered to mentor and tutor underserved high school students.

Stephan was enthusiastic about downhill skiing throughout his life. In the US, he joined the Bear Valley Ski Patrol with other Czech friends. He continued to ski as much as time and finances would allow. He won a Squaw Valley ski race at age 80. When he couldn't ski any longer at age 89, he avidly watched downhill skiing.

Stephan had fun taking risks on the slopes (his email address reminded us to "ski fast"), with the stock market and in blackjack-but never so much that he couldn't walk away and enjoy an après ski Hot Toddy and more time exchanging stories and laughs with his many friends and family. In addition to downhill skiing, he loved reading and discussing history and politics, attending lectures, spending time with his children and grandchildren, cycling (he rode ten miles on his 92nd birthday), walking on the Berkeley Marina, as well as enjoying German bratwurst and beer.

Stephen was always gifted with languages. By historical and political necessity in some cases, he learned and spoke nine languages: German, Czech, Russian, English, Swiss-German, French, Italian, Yiddish, and Spanish.

Stephan is preceded in death by his brother, Hans Gaertner, by his late wife of 30 years, Carolyn Hall-Gaertner, and stepson, Howard Hall. He is survived by his wife of 13 years, Barbara Cohen, his children, Lia Gaertner, Lia's husband, Sunjya, David Gaertner, David's wife, Sandi, step-daughter Robin Hall, grandchildren Kaela Gaertner, Jadon Gaertner, Kaia Schweig, Kiva Schweig, and his step-granddaughter, Ahjalia Haley Hall.

An informal gathering will take place on Sunday, November 13, 2022. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to causes important to Stephan: The Mitzvah Survivor Project, The Sierra Club, or the USC Shoah Foundation.

Both Stephan and his brother, Hans, have video testimonies in the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive (https://vha.usc.edu/home). And here's an article Stephan wrote a few years ago about leaving Czechoslovakia: https://www.czechoslovaktalks.com/talks/stephen-gaertner-en/