Savoring a life of service
Deputy, volunteer fireman
harbored heart for others

For more than 50 years, Urban Kramer wore not only a crisp black Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office uniform but also donned turnout gear for the Minster Volunteer Fire Department.

When Kramer died last week, he left behind big boots to fill in both departments, those who knew him said.

“All his years of service is what stands out about him,” Auglaize County Sheriff Al Solomon said. “It says what kind of person he was. He never met a person he couldn’t talk to or didn’t like.”

Kramer, 84, of Minster, was a fighter. He battled lung cancer for nearly two years, after being given just two months to live.

The father of four and grandfather of nine was someone most said had the biggest heart of anyone they ever met. Despite his line of work, he never treated people any differently, and in turn, in all those years, no one can remember anyone ever being upset about the way he handled a call.

After his funeral on Wednesday, Kramer was honored with a last call across the radio.

“There’s a brotherhood in law enforcement and fire departments,” Solomon said. “Urban was more than a deputy to many of us. He was a close friend and mentor.

“The community has lost someone who contributed something special to the community for many years,” he said.

Solomon said Urban epitomized what a law enforcement officer should be, not only in the way he handled suspects, but in the way he handled the public in any variety of complex situations they could have on a given day.

Kramer, who first volunteered in 1956, was among the first Sheriff’s Office auxiliaries in not only Auglaize County, but the state. In an interview with Kramer this winter, he said they were looking for someone who had firearms training — with his military background he was a good match for what the office needed.

Growing up, Kramer, the oldest of nine children and raised in a strict German-Catholic household, loved to play cowboys and robbers, but unlike his siblings, he always wanted to be the good guy.

He served on the Sheriff’s Office auxiliary until 1975, when at age 55 he was hired as a regular deputy after losing his job as a foreman at the New Bremen Stamco factory, which closed.

He remained a full-time deputy until 1988, when he retired and went right back on the auxiliary force, where he remained until his death, helping whenever he could despite health problems.

He was known for his assistance at the Auglaize County Fair, which he attended for more than 50 years.

The Sheriff’s Office was not the only place where Kramer served.
“He was a very dedicated firefighter,” Minster Fire Chief Dale Dues said. “Even after he retired, he still came to every monthly meeting.

“He was just a good, all-around guy, very dependable,” he said.

Don Lampert, former fire chief who served with Kramer for 40 years on the Minster Fire Department, said Kramer’s heart was in service, and he attended every training and function, even if it wasn’t required.

“It is rare to find someone that astute about attending everything,” Lampert said. “He had the Sheriff’s Office and fire department in his heart.”

Lampert said in addition to Kramer’s service, he also was just a vibrant, outgoing person, who loved being around people.

Kramer began his education speaking only German in a one-room schoolhouse, and the pair often would speak in low German when they wanted to joke around other firefighters. Typically no one else understood.

Kramer’s service to others didn’t begin just at the county level, though. It started back in World War II in the Army Air Corps — Air Transport Command.Urban’s son, Larry Kramer, of St. Marys, said his father influenced quite a few people and started a family tradition of serving that will last for years to come.

Larry Kramer said family members may not all have followed his father’s footsteps in law enforcement or the fire department, but they are scout leaders, members of community organizations, and have jobs where they use their people skills frequently.

There are even a couple firefighters and paramedics in the family.

“He really wanted to help other people,”  Mary Kramer, Urban’s wife of 62 years, said. “Urban always talked about being a policeman or a fireman.

“He was damn good at everything he’s done, and he’s always done something for someone else,” she said of a tradition of service that started with her own father.
   
Larry Kramer said his father taught him not to be selfish with his time, and that he should give it to other people.

Still, the most important lesson his children got from him was to treat each person like they are an individual person, Larry Kramer said.

Urban’s daughter, Kathie Teague, of New Bremen, said her father taught her to see the good and value in everybody. Even if it meant stopping to pick up a meal from McDonald’s for a prisoner he was transporting to the penitentiary.

“Usually the day an officer encounters someone is not their best day,” Teague said. “It wasn’t that way with Dad.”

She said she even remembers when firefighters carried their gear with them and the family would be driving somewhere out of the area, and her father would stop to help fight a fire while they waited in the car — that’s just the kind of guy he was.

“I’d love to think that I live by his example,” Larry Kramer said of his father. “I would love to live up to his standard. We may not ever be as good as him, but there are a lot of better people because of him.”

During an interview six months ago with the Wapakoneta Daily News, Urban Kramer said he always wanted to help people.

“I don’t have any smart words, but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done,” Kramer said. “I’m proud of what I’ve done. I’m proud because I was doing some good. But it’s just what you do. It’s nothing to talk about.”

As for the bad times, he simply said, “Such is life. If life was that gentle, you wouldn’t need guys like me.”