Stephen Steve Alan Collmer

Steve passed away quietly on the afternoon of March 10, 2010at the age of 56. Born October 16, 1953, he was preceded in death by his sister Mary Imy and his parents, Joe and Rosemary Collmer. Steve was native of Dallas as were his parents. He is survived by his sister Allyson Marquett and his brothers, Jan and his wife Suzanne, Bob and his wife Judy and brother-in-law Ken Imy. Steve was not married, He attended Holy Cross grade school, Bishop Dunne High School, received a BA from UT Arlington and an LLD from the University of Houston. He practiced law over the years, but his true love was in the finding, buying and selling of antiques and other interesting items. He was life long fan of the Beatles and is one of the very few people to see them live in a 1964 concert in Dallas. A memorial service is planned for 11:00 am Tuesday morning, at Calvary Hill North Mausoleum Chapel in Dallas. Father Tim Gollob, pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church and Father John Libone, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church are both long time friends of Steve and the Collmer family and will officiate. The family request no flowers. Donations may be made to Holy Cross Catholic Church in Oak Cliff.

Stories from Steve's Memorial Service on March 23, 2010:

Steve loved the Farm and spent the last year of his life living with our 98 year old Great Aunt Lillian Kurz at her home at the Farm. We employed a home care company for 24/7 care of our Aunt for the year and a half before Steve moved in. We were not happy with the service that the home care company provided. The family considered moving Aunt Lillian from her home into Christian Care Center. Steve believed that she would be much better off if she could stay in her home as long as possible. He agreed to live at the Farm and care for her with the daily support of some of our Aunt’s friends. Steve did a loving job of caring for our Aunt, and she misses him greatly.

Steve had no interest in worldly possessions. However, he loved helping his legal clients and finding treasures at garage sales, auctions and flea markets and reselling them. Steve was a people person and loved the interactions he had with his clients and customers over the years much more than anything that the money he made could buy. He had very few possessions when he moved into our Aunt’s house at the Farm and he wanted to dispose of most of them also. What Steve cared about most were his family and friends and his cats. His favorite cat died the same day he moved out to the Farm, but he was glad that the old sickly cat was finally out of its misery. Steve’s last wish was for his estate to pass on to his sister Allyson’s daughter, Nancy, who has battled MS for many years.

Steve was a life long Beatles fan and some of the only things he kept in addition to family and friends photos were Beatles CDs, books and other paraphernalia. He is the only person we know that ever actually saw the Beatles in concert. He went with his friend Mark Martelli and Mark’s mother to the concert at Dallas Memorial Auditorium on September 18, 1964. He was only 11 years old at the time and was disappointed that he could barely hear the music during the concert because of the constant screaming of all the girls. All the Beatle concerts were like that in the mid 60’s.

Steve loved to fish at the Farm, but the highlight of his fishing career was a fishing trip to a lake on the west side of Mexico. Brother Jan took Steve, Bob and a few friends for a 3 day bass fishing trip. We all caught around 100 bass a day. No lake in the US can produce that type of fishing. Jan and Bob had the heavy duty rods and reels that every bass fisherman knows is required to catch bass on plastic worms. However, to our surprise, Steve caught as many bass as anyone on the trip using his Zebco reel and cheap flexible rod. He definitely enjoyed debunking our theory that he would not catch as many bass with his less expensive equipment.

Finally, Steve was the central character in one of the Collmer family’s most memorable and humorous incidents. The family was at a 4th of July family picnic and fishing trip at the Farm. Steve was 11 years old and Bob had shown him how to blow up ant beds and cow patties with fire crackers. He had become proficient in blowing up cow patties and was showing off for sister Alice and her friend Nancy. He picked a particularly fresh patty to demonstrate his skill and lit off a firecracker. However, it appeared to be a dud and did not detonate. He was fearful that it might still explode, but decided to creep up to it cautiously to see what was wrong. At the moment he had his face within about a foot of the patty it did indeed detonate. The family reaction can only be described as pure delirium. Bob was on the other side of the lake when this occurred, which he still greatly regrets to this day. He heard an outburst like none he has ever heard since. He saw his 61 year Uncle John rolling down the dam towards the lake and other family members in an apparent panic. Bob dropped his fishing gear and ran to help his uncle who appeared to be having an epileptic fit or perhaps a heart attack. Steve’s mother, Rosemary, had through maximum motherly self restraint contained her laughter and cleaned poor Steve’s face of fresh cow pie. Bob was so disappointed that he was on the other side of the lake when this occurred that he decided to reenact this momentous family incident at Steve’s 40th birthday party. He lovingly selected a semi-fresh cow patty from the Farm and inserted it into a fruit cake round tin container. Bob then inserted a string operated confetti firecracker like device in the center of the patty. He presented the tin to Steve and when he opened it Bob pulled the string and confetti spewed out of the patty. Steve was very surprised, but nothing like he was on that day almost 30 years before at the Farm.