Kurt Willi Fengler

Berlin was a hotbed of jazz and warring political factions when Kurt Willi Fengler was born on October 18, 1927. After his father's overly-zealous socialist beliefs tore the family apart, he was raised mainly by his remarkable mother. 

As a teenager at the height of the Nazi inferno, he was sent with his schoolmates to man 88 mm anti-aircraft guns at the top-secret V-2 rocket base in Peenemünde. At 16 in 1944, he parachuted into the infamous Battle of Arnhem, then finished the war with twenty-eight missions in the Luftwaffe flying the notorious ME-163 Komet, a rocket fighter that killed almost half the pilots who flew it before they even got into combat.

His older sister became a war bride in 1948 and by the 1950s, the family had immigrated to the United States, landing in Torrance, CA. By then Kurt had trained as an architect and stone mason.

He was drafted into the US Army and found himself back in Europe with a top secret clearance, helping design American air bases in the midst of the Cold War. He met and married his first wife, Gisela, and fathered two children, Rosemary and Steven. The marriage ended in divorce, but he remarried to the love of his life, Gertie in the mid-1970s. Sadly, Gertie was lost to pancreatic cancer in the 1980s, but he found love again with Betty.

An avid skier, outdoorsman, and gifted woodworker who loved a "hot game of Aggravation," he designed and built homes for himself and his younger brother, completing his final house while in his 70s. He passed peacefully on April 3, with loving family at his side and is survived by two children, six step-children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, relatives, and friends who adore him and will miss his wisdom and ready laugh tremendously.

Ruhe in Frieden...

A memorial service will be held at a later date.

Online condolences may be shared at www.austinandbarnesfuneralhome.com

Austin and Barnes is serving the Fengler family.

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