Carl Deimling

Carl Deimling was born in 1926 in Napoleon, Ohio to Carl and Laura Deimling. Carl was a well-loved and dearly treasured only child, growing up in the company of extended family and small-town friends. He loved growing plants, and he loved music. He loved playing the accordion, and continued to do so until about the last year of his life. He can be seen in a photo from 1940 of students of the Trick Brothers Accordion Institute in Toledo, Ohio. At some later time, he also picked up the saxophone, and eventually played in a swing band, playing in dance halls around northern Ohio. A love of travel was acquired from his parents, who travelled widely, in the Midwest and to the west. He continued this travelling tradition with his own family of four children. A love of gardening came from his father and paternal grandmother, both of whom were serious gardeners who provided much of the produce for their families. But dad had a love of plants that was unique to him; even as a child he was growing plants he found interesting or unusual, often starting plants from seed. His children remember him starting a mixture of cactus from seed, and blowing fern spores into a glass jar full of peat moss, watching their entire life cycle emerge in that jar. During most of his work years he ran a small landscape nursery and did landscaping in his spare time, on weekends and evenings. His interest in forestry, and in landscape architecture, and in the natural world ran deep.

Carl went to St. Paul’s Lutheran School and then Napoleon High School, graduating in 1944. At the age of 18, he received his orders of induction into the military, and reported for duty in November of 1944. Carl was sent to the South Pacific and saw combat action in the Philippines. He rarely spoke of his experiences in the war, but when he did so he told accounts that were hair-raising. At the conclusion of the war, Carl was sent to Hiroshima, Japan as part of the occupying army. He was honorably discharged in November, 1946.

After his military service Carl attended Defiance College for 2 years as a science major. In June of 1949 Carl married Ruth Scheig, and then to support a family, left college and instead took a 12-month electronics course at Deforest (now DeVry Tech) in Chicago, IL. In 1950 the young couple moved to New Haven, Indiana a small berg outside of Fort Wayne. Carl took a job at The Magnavox Company as an electronics troubleshooter and worked in quality control. He worked at Magnavox until 1971. During these years Carl continued to work toward having his own landscape nursery, buying an acre and a half along the Maumee River and growing plants that he propagated from cuttings. After a layoff from Magnavox, he started working at Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne (now Purdue Fort Wayne) as a groundskeeper, a job he retained until his retirement.

On retirement, he and Ruth travelled extensively. Dad’s love of plants was reflected in his own yard, and in the landscape of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, which they had attended for most of their married lives, and to which they had a very strong connection. Carl was always propagating plants to give away to friends, or to sell at the neighborhood garage sale. Their home was nearly always full of, or expecting, company. Carl loved playing the accordion for company. He also enjoyed woodworking, and restoring wood furniture, and his children all have pieces of furniture that his hands created or restored.

Because of the devastation caused by dementia, Carl’s last few years were spent at Lutheran Life Villages in Fort Wayne, where he passed away on November 3, 2020.

Carl is preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Ruth. He is survived by two sons, Tim and Dave, two daughters, Beth and Elaine, 8 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.