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Kaehr -- Raymond Joseph Kaehr, 84, a resident and respected businessman in Albuquerque since 1954, died peacefully Sunday, January 20, 2002. He is survived by his wife, Donis Kaehr of Albuquerque; sister, Loretta LaFountain; brother, Joe Kaehr, both of Indiana; sons, Mickey Kaehr and his wife, Gail of Lewisville, TX, Jim Kaehr and his wife, Terri, Ron Kaehr and his wife, Dolores of Albuquerque; daughter, Pam Edens and her husband, Sterling of Tempe, AZ; grandchildren, Shelly Kaehr and Mark Kaehr of Lewisville, TX, Michelle Stevens and her husband, Shawn of Tempe, AZ, Sterling Edens and his wife, Brynlee of Tempe, AZ, Robert Kaehr, Tammi Buehler and her husband, Sean, Kimberly MacMillan and her husband, Jim, Tosha Young and her husband, Greg, Bryan Kaehr and his wife, Melissa, all of Albuquerque and William Kaehr of Homer, AK; great-grandchildren, Evan Kaehr, Tyler and Jordan Edens of Tempe, AZ; stepdaughters, Dona Clapp and her husband, Carl of Barnsdall, OK, Delores Albert and her husband, Paul, Debra Young and her husband, Bob, all of Albuquerque; step-grandchildren, Matthew Young of Albuquerque, Michael Doran of Kansas City, KS and Sean Doran of Irving, TX. Ray was preceded in death by Opal, the mother of his five children in 1967; and his daughter, Vicky in 1991. He was born in Grand Rapids, MI on February 26, 1917 to Joseph and Ethel Kaehr. He was the eldest of two sisters, Viola and Loretta and his brother, Joe. As a young man, he worked with the CCA building grain silos near Decatur, IN where his family had moved after the stock market crash of 1929. In the late 1930s he moved to Ft. Wayne, IN where he delivered milk door to door for a local dairy. After enrolling in night accounting courses at the University of Indiana in Ft. Wayne, IN, he worked as a bookkeeper in an accounting department. In 1941 he met and married Opal Arrants. He attended Officers Candidate School where he graduated first in his class. The army then sent him to Fort Bragg, NC and finally to Fort Sill, OK where he served as a field artillery and demolitions instructor. He was sent to the Philippines to be part of the �mopping up� operations against the scattered Japanese resistance that remained. He was with the first U.S. troops to arrive at Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the end of the war. In 1946 he founded Imperial Plating & Metal Finishing in Ashley, IN. He returned to the University of Indiana to study the subject of electroplating. A year later he moved his business to Waterloo, IN where he was a respected community leader, a member of the Lions Club and served a term as the mayor. In 1953, he moved his business to Albuquerque where it has continued to flourish as Kaehr Plating. He was the first to successfully electroplate aluminum and he pioneered work in plating of circuit boards. In 1969 he married Donis Shannon. They have been married for 32 years. He is a member of the Ballut Abyad Shrine, Albuquerque Lodge #60 A.F. & A.M., and the Order of the Elks in Albuquerque. Services will be held Thursday, 10:00 a.m., at French Mortuary, University Blvd. Chapel, 1111 University Blvd. NE. Interment will take place at Santa Fe National Cemetery. The family would like to thank the loving and compassionate staffs at St. Joseph Hospital North and Anna Kaseman, Vista Care Hospice. Contributions may be made to Vista Care Hospice, 8804 Washington Street NE, Suite C, 87113. French Mortuary, 1111 University Blvd. NE.
        Published on: Thu January 24, 2002