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SIERRA VISTA — Local arts supporter and hotelier Jim Landwehr, 74, died Wednesday of a blood cancer disease.
Called a gentleman by those who knew him in the area arts and business communities, Landwehr also was described as an outgoing man who loved Sierra Vista.
With his death, Der Meistersinger’s voice also has been silenced.
Der Meistersinger — master singer in German — was the title given Landwehr by the Sierra Vista Symphony’s board of directors, which on July 10 made him and his wife, Fran, honorary board members, the first-ever honor the organization has provided. The board presented the Landwehrs with the honors on July 20.
 Sierra Vista Area Greater Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year recipient Jim Landwehr, left, chats with Helen Manring during the Chamber’s awards banquet earlier this year. Landwehr passed away Wednesday. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
A singer from his youth, his wife noted he performed in a number of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas while in high school. When he went to St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., he sang the lead tenor part, Rudolfo, in Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme.”
“He loved to sing at weddings or other events, sometimes as a command performance when his mother wanted him to,” his wife said.
Besides being named an honorary board member of the Sierra Vista Symphony, which Fran Landwehr said brought her husband joy, the board also named Jim “The Sierra Vista Symphony Der Meistersinger.” Having that title goes back centuries, primarily to artisan and trading guilds in German cities. The theme was used by Richard Wagner for his opera, “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.”
For the local arts community, Landwehr’s death leaves a gap because he was someone who was a financial supporter and who had a knowledge of the arts.
“He (Jim) pointed me in the right direction, with his marketing ideas and creative approach to fundraising,” said Roger Bayes, the symphony’s conductor and one of its founders.
Landwehr could be best described as “a people person,” Bayes said. Everything he did “was for the betterment of people. He loved Sierra Vista and did good for the community,” Bayes said.
With Landwehr’s death, there’s going to “be a huge hole to fill,” he said.
Rick Klein, who is the Sierra Vista Unified School District’s school and community facilities manager, said Landwehr’s death “is a loss for the arts.”
Landwehr stepped up to support acts that came to the city, both financially and offering accommodations at his hotels, as well as providing money to groups in Sierra Vista, Klein said.
“For many years, he was very active,” Klein said.
Terry Bowmaster, president of the Sierra Vista Symphony Association, said that even though he knew Landwehr for fewer than three years, he knew the man was a powerhouse within the Sierra Vista arts and business communities.
Bowmaster said Landwehr was an important mentor to him. He said it was appropriate and important for the association to honor the Landwehrs.
“Jim was a rare individual,” Bowmaster said.
Anytime the symphony was facing a complex issue, Landwehr thought out a solution that made sense, Bowmaster said. “We will miss him,” he said.
Gail Edwards, who worked for Jim for 16 years as the general manager of the Sun Canyon Inn, said business and the arts were important to Landwehr, and his dedication to the entire community will never be fully known to the people. The Sun Canyon Inn is one of three hotels Landwehr helped build. The others are Gateway Studio Suites and Garden Place South.
Susan Tegmeyer, president/CEO of the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce, described Landwehr as a great man.
“Jim Landwehr was a highly regarded and respected member of the local business community,” she said. “As a former member of the board of directors, he always took an active interest in the chamber’s members and worked hard to support Sierra Vista’s businesses.”
In April, the chamber presented Landwehr and his wife with the Small Business of the Year Award for the Sun Canyon Inn and Gateway Studio Suites.
“He deservedly won this title because of his exceptional dedication to this community, both through his businesses and his commitment to numerous nonprofit organizations,” Tegmeyer added. “Jim helped to shape Sierra Vista as we know it today, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” she said.
Sierra Vista City Manager Chuck Potucek called Landwehr a “unique individual and a gentleman.”
“He made a real difference in Sierra Vista as a civic-minded business leader who was always willing to volunteer his time,” Potucek said. “He was involved in both business and cultural activities and worked with us for many years on improving our tourism development efforts, and as a member of both the Downtown Neighborhood Commission and the Arts & Humanities Commission. And he has always provided high-quality hospitality to area visitors, whether they were military or civilian. He will be greatly missed.”
Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain said he and his wife, Jane, as well as the city, lost a “dear friend.”
“Jim was an invaluable community leader for many years,” Strain said. “From the initial meetings he hosted at the Sun Canyon Inn to discuss restoration of the West End, through his many years with the symphony, Jim was a selfless contributor to our community.”
For Fran Landwehr, the city and its people have been her husband’s friends ever since he came to Sierra Vista in 1984 and opened his first business in 1985.
Even as he fought the losing battle against the worst of three forms of myelodyspalstic syndromes, he was brave, she said.
On July 15, Landwehr decided not to go through any more treatments deciding “to let it take its course,” his wife said.
Landwehr died at home under hospice care. When the symphony board presented the proclamation to him on July 20, “he was lucid and very pleased, yes, very pleased,” his wife said.
Funeral arrangements, including a memorial service, are still pending and are expected to be published in the Herald/Review on Sunday.
Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com. Managing editor Keith Allen can be reached at 515-4610 or at keith.allen@svherald.co
Margit wrote on Aug 9, 2008 7:48 AM: