Great-Great-Grandpa Schaefer turns 95

My brother Bob and our father were the two general contractors who were the last serious owners of the old CALIFORNIA HOTEL located on the North West Corner of Fifth Street (Old Route 66) and E Street (Main Street) in downtown San Bernardino. Local leaders did not see eye to eye with the efforts to save and restore the historic hotel and it was leveled. My father, Robert A. Schaefer, turned 95 on April 27. When my identical twin brother Bob proposed having a birthday party to celebrate, he said, “I’m really busy right now, why don’t we just wait until I’m a hundred?” Eventually he approved, and the party was held the next Sunday after his birthday, attended by friends and family. During the event, Bob and I told of our father’s unusual life accomplishments. A PowerPoint presentation included pictures of a home he built in San Bernardino for his parents when he was only 22 years old, with no previous construction experience. He was coached by an experienced neighbor builder who never saw the job. That led to a career in construction, first as a carpenter, then as an estimator, project superintendent, and then as a licensed building contractor. He was the estimator for the contractor who built the Loma Linda University Church and the five-story addition to Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, a number of Stater Bros. Markets, the College of the Desert, and Huguley Memorial Hospital, near Fort Worth, Texas and a 13 story high-rise in Studio City. After building our own home in Loma Linda in 1946, he built a number of other homes in Loma Linda, including the largest home in Loma Linda at the time, a 5,000 square foot home on upper San Juan Drive. After becoming a general contractor, he built more churches and many luxury homes, including several mansions on Smiley Heights Drive in Redlands. Over his career, he was involved in the construction of a number of shopping centers, hospitals, convalescent homes, and more than 40 churches. During this time, he also restored antique automobiles: a 1911 Cadillac, a 1916 Dodge roadster, a 1921 Essex touring car, and a 1925 Pierce Arrow roadster. My brother took the Essex to La Sierra College, (now La Sierra University) where he was involved in a parade with California Governor Goodwin Knight in the car. Our dad owned cars that most people have never heard of, including an Espano Suiza, an Owen Magnetic, and a most Crane Simplex. The 1917 Crane Simplex had a radiator shell made from German silver. His current project is a 1937 Cord Beverly with a turbocharged Lycoming engine. Pictures of his family over the years, included Linda, an adopted daughter named by Bob and I after a little girl we were “in love” with in the first grade at the Loma Linda Elementary School. After his retirement, our father installed more than 6,000 satellite dishes for people wanting to watch Loma Linda Broadcasting Network. When a teacher in a local church once asked, Do you know of anyone who reminds you of Jesus? Someone answered, “Grandpa Schaefer.”