Karl Schaper, 92, of Nora Springs, died Thursday, June 22, 2023 at Mercy One North Iowa Medical Center in Mason City.
A Funeral Service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, July 21 at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 101 N. Hawkeye, Nora Springs, with Pastor Joel Nye officiating. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church.
Karl Heinz Schaper was born January 10, 1931 in Jerxheim, Germany to Wilhelm and Emma (Kalmutzke) Schaper. As a young man he was an apprentice to a mechanic, learning skills that would last him a lifetime. In Germany, Karl made friends with an American serviceman who invited him to come to the United States and in December 1957 Karl boarded the SS United States in Bremerhaven bound for the US. He made his way by train to northeast Iowa and soon found work as a diesel mechanic. Karl was very proud to become an American citizen in 1969.
Karl met Margaret Whitney of Maynard, Iowa and they were married at the Little Brown Church in October 1958. Together they had three children and moved to Nora Springs in 1965 when Karl was offered a job as service manager at Mason City Import Motors, the Volkswagen dealership. In 1974 Karl and Margaret started their own business, Mason City Truck Repair which they ran until 1996. Karl and his mechanics repaired the trucks, and Margaret did the bookkeeping. Karl continued to work as a fleet mechanic for McKiness Excavating in Mason City for several years after “retiring” at age 65.
Karl officiated youth and high school football, basketball, and soccer for many years, well into his eighties. He enjoyed bicycling, taking part in RAGRAI several times as well as enjoying many rides around the north Iowa area with friends and as a member of the North Iowa Touring Club. He and a friend even flew to Alaska and rode their bicycles all the way home in the late 1990’s. Karl was also a cross country and downhill skier. He was a great example of living a very full and active life, with age only taking its toll in the last few years as his health declined.
Karl was a born storyteller and in fact wrote a book, a work of fiction inspired by actual events in his life as a fourteen-year-old in Germany at the end of the Second World War. The title, Three Towers of Home (Part One: Into the Unknown and Part Two: The Quest for Home) was inspired by the Heeseburg, a watchtower used during the war, and the Catholic and Lutheran Church steeples in Karl’s hometown of Jerxheim and the fictional character’s desire to get home to see them again. Karl remained close to his family back in Germany despite the miles and they loved their “Heinzchen Onkel,” a reference to the Americanized syntax in his German after living in America most of his life.
Karl is survived by his children Elizabeth Thompson and husband Grant of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Angie Hinderaker and her husband Tom of Story City, Iowa; William Schaper and his wife, Melyssa of Mason City; grandchildren Whitney Thompson and her spouse Will Kelly of Madison, Wisconsin; Claire Wilson and her husband Barkley of Tulsa, Oklahoma; MacKenzie and Kameryn Nolte of Mason City and Mae Hinderaker of Story City; sisters-in-law Mary Wright of Rochester, Minnesota and Hilda Schaper of Dobbeln, Germany; nieces Shelly Keller, Barbel Buder, Brunhilda Rothkopf, and nephews Tom Wright, Terry Wright, Michael Schaper and Stephan Schaper.
Karl was preceded in death by his wife Margaret Schaper, his parents and Margaret’s parents, brothers Fritz Schaper, Gerhard Schaper and their wives and brother Hans Schaper; brother-in-law Charles Whitney and his wife, brother-in-law Tom Wright and niece Candace Wright.
Anyone who desires to give a memorial toward the purchase of a bench in his honor may send it to the Karl Schaper family at 19289 Yarrow Ave, Nora Springs, Iowa.
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