Herman William Meyer

Herman William Meyer was born on August 7, 1911 in Fort Collins, Colorado to Christian Heinrich and Anna Marie Meyer.

Herman’s home his entire childhood life was on a farm. His father worked the land and enjoyed raising his family there.

When Herman was 2 years and 5 days old, he hit one of the family horses with a stick. The horse did not like that and kicked Herman in the stomach. The doctors at the hospital said that Herman was going to die – he had a shattered bladder and severely torn intestines. The doctors recommended that surgery would be a waste of time and money since Herman would die anyway. Anna would not hear of it and insisted upon surgery. To the doctor’s surprise, Herman lived. “I fooled them!” Herman said. He lived to 100 years old 3 months and 26 days.

Herman had 4 brothers (1 who died as a child) Ernest, John and Carl and 1 sister; Anna. He was the 4th child in the family. Because his mother never recovered fully from the birth of his brother, Carl (he weighed 13 ½ lbs), she died in 1925. Herman was 14 years old.

After graduating from Fort Collins High School Herman went to Business College and worked in Laramie, Wyoming. Then he moved to Tacoma, Washington in December 1939 where his sister and brother lived. In March 1941 he came to Portland and went to work for Geological Survey and then Bonneville Power Administration.

In February of 1942, Herman went into the service, the Army Air Corp. He taught RADAR which was a brand new technology at the time. He was in the service until February of 1946. He then went back to work for BPA.

He married Elvira Smith on November 20, 1948. They raised their family in Portland. In 1973, Herman retired from BPA, after 32 years of service.

Herman is survived by his wife, Elvira who is 92 years old, stepsons, Gerald Zoebisch (Uncha) of Colorado Springs, Colorado and Dale Zoebisch (Sandra) of Seattle, Washington; sons Paul Meyer (Jaclynne) of Milwaukie, Oregon and Wayne Meyer of Pheonix, Arizona; daughters Cheryl Anderson (Walter) of Gresham, Oregon and Michelle Norris (Michael) of Springtown, Texas; 10 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild.

Herman was a member of Calvary Presbyterian Church.

All his siblings pre-deceased him.

There will be a military graveside ceremony on December 15 at Willamette Cemetery.

Arrangements under the direction of Caldwell's, Hennessey, Goetsch & McGee Funeral Home, Portland, OR.