Hermann A. Schroeder

Hermann A. Schroeder, age 89, of Grants Pass, died Tuesday, December 15, 2015 at Brookdale Village in Grants Pass.

Hermann was born May 16, 1926 in Hamburg, Germany to Adolf Hermann Schroeder and Anna Erna Westphalen Schroeder. He was in the Air Force during World War 2 and after the war lived with his family in Uetersen, a suburb of Hamburg where he became involved with the family leather working and tannery business before moving to Paraguay to open and manage a leather/horse hair manufacturing plant. He later moved to Catalina Island, California where he managed the US Mainland division of a Hawaiian Perfume Company. This is where he met and later married Marianne Gisela Opitsch. They moved to Los Angeles, CA and he became an executive at a freight forwarding company. In 1977 along with two partners he purchased a lumber mill on the corner of Redwood Hwy & Allen Creek in Grants Pass where he moved his family. After a few years he made the decision to go back to his leatherworking roots and created Leather Creations, specializing in handmade Dutchman style caps. He traveled the West Coast exhibiting his caps at craft and ethnic festivals before retiring 2 years ago to become the primary caretaker for his wife who has Parkinson’s.

Survivors include his wife, Marianne Schroeder of Grants Pass, Oregon; a son, Uwe Schroeder of Grants Pass, Oregon; a daughter, Elke Crafts of Montgomery, Texas; and two grandsons, Austin Crafts and Alexander Crafts both of Montgomery, Texas.