E.V. "Vic" Niemeyer passed away peacefully at home on March 1, 2015, holding the hand of his beloved wife Lala. He was born in Houston on September 28, 1919 and grew up in La Porte, Texas on Galveston Bay. He graduated from the local high school in 1936 and then attended Schreiner Institute in Kerrville and the U.S. Naval Academy for one year, before graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in liberal arts in 1941.
In late 1941 Vic entered Northwestern University Naval Reserve training unit. He graduated and was commissioned in January 1942 as an Ensign. Vic then entered the U.S. Submarine Service and served in the Atlantic and Pacific, winding up on his fifth war patrol in Tokyo Bay for the surrender on September 2, 1945. He served four years in the Submarine Service.
In 1944 he married Dorothea Hasskarl of Brenham. He returned to college after the war and received a BS in dairy husbandry. When the war ended he farmed as a dairy husbandsman in Brenham; after one year, he discovered it was not his calling in life. He returned to the University of Texas for an MA in Latin American Studies.
Polio claimed his first wife in 1956. He later received a Ph.D. from UT in 1958 and he married Lala Acosta on May 31 of the same year. He was going on 57 years of marriage!
After receiving his Masters he entered the U.S. Information Agency, serving 24 years in Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, Chile, the Philippines, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Following retirement from USIA in 1979 he lived in Austin, where he worked at the University of Texas in the Institute of Latin American Studies and the International Office for ten years before retiring again. He founded the Central Texas Foreign Service Group and co-founded the East Austin Rotary Club and served in many service organizations, usually as president.
As a Rotarian he took a Rotary Exchange Group to Santa Fe Province, Argentina for a month, accompanied by his wife Lala and four professionals.
In 2011 he received Rotary International's "Service above Self" award, given annually to 100 Rotarians worldwide, in recognition for the collection and shipment of 4,000 pieces of used school furniture from Del Valle, Texas to Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico for distribution among schools in that area. This project required five boxcars and $25,000 for rail shipment. Vic raised $15,000 locally and Rotary District governor Pat Derr in Killeen contributed the rest to make it a successful venture. The equipment was distributed at 40 different schools by the local Lions Club.
In 2000 he receiéved the Ohtli Award, the highest award given by the Mexican government to a member of the Mexican-American community, for "service to Mexico and the Mexican community." Vic was a Mexican historian and his two books, "Revolution at Querétaro: the Constitutional Convention of 1916-1917" and "El General Bernardo Reyes" were published by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Mexico's federal Congress.
The family would like to add that Vic was loved by all and they will miss him terribly. He made friends readily and was genuine and humble. He relished showing off his compost piles and would sneak food to the deer without Lala knowing it.
He is preceded in death by his father Eberhardt Victor Niemeyer, his mother Elise Shaffer Niemeyer, and his sister Norma Niemeyer Morton. He is survived by his wife Lala and children Vic, Ruth, Chris, and Steve, as well as 9 grandchildren: Travis, Sarah, Michael, James; Cecilia, Carla, Erika; and Carl and Sam. He is also survived by 10 great-grandchildren: Reed; Braden, Chase, Penelope; Lucas and Sabrina; Franco and Nicolás; and Lucia and Mateo. We can't forget his nieces Meredith Morton Moyer and Meme Morton Seay.
Services will be held on Saturday, March 7 at 12:30 pm at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, 1500 N. Capitol of Texas Highway in Austin. A visitation will take place at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N. Lamar in Austin, 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 5.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Vic's name to the Rotary Foundation, Episcopal Relief and Development, and the International Good Neighbor Council Foundation.
Obituary and memorial guestbook available online at www.wcfish.com
Published in Austin American-Statesman from Mar. 4 to Mar. 5, 2015
