Col. Harry Lindauer

From the Annapolis newspaper…

Retired Army Col. Harry Lindauer, [z”l] had a favorite expression: “A new Pharaoh arose who knew not Joseph.”

What he meant by that, his wife Thea explained, is that a man can be honored for many things, but as generations follow generations eventually the man is forgotten.  But a man who lived a life like Col. Lindauer’s would be hard to forget, family and friends say. And what he’ll be remembered for depends on who is asked.

Col. Lindauer, a resident of Annapolis since 1967, died Friday at the Ginger Cove retirement community after a lengthy illness. He was 88.

In the city’s arts community, Col. Lindauer was known as president of Annapolis Opera Company, who alongside Thea Lindauer took a struggling business and made it “fantastic.”

“They brought in professional performers and artists to make it one of the most wonderful organizations,” said Carol Treiber, executive director of the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County.  Ms. Treiber remembers Col. Lindauer as a strong passionate person. A guy who really knew his music – and was often seen sporting a brightly colored suit vest.  The vest was made by women who worked in the opera company’s costume department, Mrs. Lindauer said.

“It was made from beautiful fabrics used in the opera – these were not cheap fabrics,” she said. “They made me a jacket too, and we treasured those.”

In the Jewish community, Col. Lindauer was known for something else: president of Temple Beth Shalom in Arnold and an instrumental part of the introduction of the Jewish Church Party at the Naval Academy. That effort culminated with the construction and dedication of the Naval Academy All-Faith Chapel in 1980 and the Uriah P. Levy Center in 2005.

David Hoffberger, a consultant for special projects at the Naval Academy, will always remember one particular day he spent with Col. Lindauer shortly after the November 2003 ground breaking for the Levy Center.

It was a brisk, winter day and Col. Lindauer was making one of his many trips to the lot where the center now stands.  At a very slow pace, Col. Lindauer zig-zagged through ladders, shimmied past steal poles and negotiated construction equipment, until he was facing the structure’s east wall, made of Jerusalem stone.  Mr. Hoffberger had followed behind, and positioned himself next to his friend.  Tears were streaming from Col. Lindauer’s eyes, Mr. Hoffberger recalled. It could have been caused by the whipping winds, he said, but Col. Lindauer was crying.

“So Harry, what do you think?” he remembers asking his friend of more than 10 years.

“This is what we fought for,” Col. Lindauer replied as he stared at the wall.

And that’s all he said.

Fighting for his country is something Col. Lindauer’s children remember their father for.

“He was very patriotic,” said daughter, Robin Lang, of Severn. “He was born in Germany – he came out of the war around the Holocaust time, but never had resentment for Germans. A lot of survivors hated Germans, but he knew it was individuals, not the country. And he just loved the country (United States). Anything military, he loved.”

Col. Lindauer was born April 8, 1918, in Buttenhausen, Germany, and moved to Chicago in 1938. His parents, the late Karl and Emma Osterreich Lindauer, were part of a family that owned factories in Buttenhausen, Stuttgart and Darmstadt, dating back to the 18th century.

He was drafted into the Army on March 7, 1941, and served on the Pacific coast and in Alaska until 1944. He then graduated from Officers’ Candidate School and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Transportation Corps.

He served on the staff of Gen. George S. Patton as a translator and prisoner of war interrogator.

After the war, Col. Lindauer helped set up de-nazification procedures for the city of Nuremberg and worked in the civil-military government there. He was discharged in January 1946.

Subsequently he re-entered the Army on Oct. 22, 1951, and served on the Intelligence staff of I Corps in Korea. He served tours of duty in Japan, Germany and Vietnam, and taught at the Army Intelligence School at Fort Holabird, Md., before retiring on Jan. 1, 1970, having served a total of more than 29 years.

Col. Lindauer’s military awards include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Gold Star. He has been awarded the highest civilian award given by the German Federal government, the Civilian Cross of Merit in Silver, an award given in recognition for his efforts to facilitate German-American friendship, both during his military career and afterwards as a civilian.

Although he was an Army man, Mrs. Lang said her father was still “pro-Navy.”

Mrs. Lang’s brother-in-law attended the Naval Acacemy. Mr. Lindauer has a niece who graduated from the academy and another niece who is there now.

The family always had a big bet on who would win the Army-Navy football game.

Col. Lindauer got creative, she said, and said whoever lost gets to choose how they will pay their bets. Initially it was in quarters, but this year, Col. Lindauer chose dollar bills.

“This year, he was in Ginger Cove and my mom had to get him dollar bills so he could pay off his bet,” Mrs. Lang said.

Along with his sister, David Lindauer remembers his father as a tough guy on the outside – marshmellow on the inside.

“He had eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren,” David Lindauer said. “He was proudest of them.”

And David Lindauer can’t help but be proud of his father.

“They just don’t make them like that anymore,” he said.