Former member of the school board and Bonfante Gardens board of
directors
Gilroy
Robert Kraemer, a former member of the Gilroy Unified School District board and a member of the Bonfante Gardens board of directors, died Thursday night from cancer. He was 68.
Born in 1940, in Jamaica, New York, Kraemer met his wife Joanne in 1958 through mutual friends. They were married in 1962 on Long Island, New York.
Kraemer also was a member of the Leadership Gilroy board and a member of the Gilroy Foundation.
When he retired from Gilroy Foods after a 25-year career, “that’s when he started doing community work,” Joanne Kraemer said.
And that’s about the time Mayor Al Pinheiro got involved with some of the same organizations. He first met Kraemer in the early ’70s when both were working at Gilroy Foods. Pinheiro as a knife sharpener, Kraemer as a supervisor.
Although they didn’t connect then, years later they became good friends.
“I think of Bob as someone who did what he did for the good of the community, not for himself and not for the accolades,” Pinheiro said. “When he committed to something it got done.”
When Pinheiro learned doctors gave his friend little time, he organized a “roast.”
“Bob got to be told all the accolades and how people felt about him when he was alive,” he said. “That made me happy.”
Kraemer is survived by his wife, Joanne Kraemer; sons, Stuart, Todd (wife Melissa); daughter, Kristin Kraemer; and one grandchild, Miles.
Services are pending.
