Dietmar Meyer MD Major (retired)
There is a great deal to love and admire about Dietmar (Dick), loving husband of Joan (Fisher) Meyer, who passed away unexpectedly at the family cottage on July 12, 2012 at the age of 81. Dietmar was born in 1931 in the Prignitz area of Brandenburg, Germany during the political turmoil of the depression and was selected at the age of12 for an AH Schule in Sonthofen Bavaria. Two years later in the closing weeks of the war, Dietmar walked home alone from southern Bavaria to northern Germany, dodging Allied bombs and military patrols, to reunite with his family in Perleberg, mid-way between Berlin and Hamburg. The Meyer family fled in 1948 from communist east Germany to the Rhineland and then in 1952 Dietmar, following cousins Adolf and Horst Krüger, emigrated to unknown Winnipeg. Within a year he was joined by his parents, Erich and Frieda, his sister and two brothers, and cousin AlbertLade. Dick took a variety of available menial jobs, learned English quickly, trained and worked as an X-ray technician for the Sanitoriam Board of Manitoba, and then at the age of 26 began medical studies at the University of Manitoba. Following graduation in 1964, he completed a 26 year career as a medical officer with the RCAF, followed by ten warding years as a staff doctor at the Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene Ontario. Dietmar was a man of family love, tightly bound to his brothers Bodo(Phoebe) and Waldemar (Gisela), and to his sister Ilse (Arno) Scholz, though separated geographically from Nanaimo to Winnipeg to Landshut, Germany. He loved and was proud of his fine nieces and nephews, Robert, David, Ann-Louise, Tina and Chris on the Meyer/Scholz side; Tanya, Alison, Allen, Matthew and Emma on the Middlebro'/Fisher side of the family. Through the years he remained close to his Air Force comrades, the pilots he flew with in Baden-Soelingen and Gimli who remain his most loyal and valued friends. There is for all of us a very great deal to mourn about the tragic loss of gentle Dick, a lover of cats, a man of intelligence, courage and boundless compassion. In these days of shock and grief, the loving support of my sister Sylvia Fisher Middlebro', and brother Mark Fisher has been invaluable. Special thanks to the OPP and Constable Rodney Petroski of the Noelville, Ont. detachment who answered our call for help. A Memorial Service will be held at the Steckley-Gooderham Funeral Home, 30 Worsley Street, Barrie, at 11am on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012. If desired, as a tribute, donations may be made to The Ontario SPCA - Barrie Branch or to a charity of your choice. Condolences www.steckleygooderham.com