Fritz A. Maier, 81 Oct. 22, 1931 - July 30, 2013

Born Oct. 22, 1931, in Utica, N.Y., to Swiss parents Alexandre Jean and Emma (Kienir) Maier.

During my childhood we spent many hours in the Adirondack Mountains, hiking, swimming and just enjoying the outdoors. I loved sports — skiing, tennis, golf and hiking. My mother insisted I take music lessons — accordion and drums. The drums proved useful as a teenager as I played in a dance band for round and square dancing and earned some money.

I graduated from Utica Free Academy after which I attended the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University as a pulp and paper major. After graduation in 1954, I was drafted and served two years in the Army Quartermaster Corps, mostly in Germany where I was able to travel and ski on leave. On returning home I went to work for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co. at Mechanicville, N.Y. While there I met a beautiful young lady who became my lifetime partner. Lucie (Coe Johns) and I were married in Pawling, N.Y., on April 21, 1957.

We had three delightful children over the next eight years. I joined the St. Regis Paper Company in 1959 at their corporate office in New York City and commuted from Rockland County. St. Regis built a technical center only a few miles from our home and I transferred there. Some time later the company built a two-machine paper mill, at that time the largest in the world, in Monticello, Miss., and I spent four years there as a technical service rep.

From there I went to Jacksonville, Fla., and we lived in Neptune Beach. After visiting and skiing in the big mountains out west, I retired early to become a ski bum in a fledgling high ski area called Telluride, Colo. After 10 years we decided for health reasons to move from 8,800 feet elevation to a lower place. After extensively traveling around we decided on Coeur d’Alene where we became active in the Episcopal Church. We also found time to engage in a new activity hiking, skiing and just enjoying Switzerland. We found a studio apartment in Montreux which we could rent whenever we wished. In all we spent more than four years in Switzerland hiking and skiing there and in Austria, Italy and France. The last two years we stayed close to home.

Survivors include his wife, Lucie; children, Mark, Amy and Karl; grandchildren, Alisa, Melissa, Kristina and Thomas; sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Judi and Dan Sprague; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 501 E. Wallace Ave., Coeur d’Alene. Memorial gifts may sent to St. Luke’s or your favorite charity.