Karl. M. Illig, MD [1911 - 2008]
by Dr. Petra A. Illig,
M.D. Jan 2009
Click
HERE
for Petra's web page
Except for specialty medical training, Karl Illig’s entire public education occurred between WWI and WWII, and his attitudes and senses of humanity and security were shaped by strong influences during a very difficult time in European history. His life span was long – over 97 years—and he witnessed more technological changes than any previous century in human history. He recalled seeing his first powered airplane flying off a field in Bavaria as a young boy, and watched (and discussed) the beginning of human space flight.
He began his medical training in Heidelberg, Germany, but was drafted as a medical officer into the German Army Corp in February 1940. By then he was already widowed, as his young wife had died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium. Her name is not known to his survivors.
Karl was raised as a Catholic in his youth in Germany. As a teenager he became a Protestant, joining the Lutheran church. In the early 1960s the Illig family attended the Congregational church in South Dakota. Gradually he became an atheist. He had been a Freemason most of his adult life. In the 1970's he quit the Masons because that group demanded a belief in a higher power.
 Oma - Karl's mother Kunigunde Grötsch 1967. Oma visited Pierre, SD in 1960 Photo H. Illig, Langendiebach, Germany ca. 1968 |
Most of his time during the war was spent in Norway. He
once told a story of how an attack of appendicitis saved his life. He was
about ready to be shipped out to the Russian front when he developed
abdominal pain which required surgery. The rest of his battalion continued
on, and to his knowledge, none survived.
During this period of time he also worked as an army physician in Graz,
Austria, where he met Renata Fuchs [Renata's
poetry
-
Spätlese]. They were married in November of
1944 in a civil ceremony. Interestingly, neither of their mothers attended
the wedding as a protest to the union. Karl was soon back in Norway, and
his new wife was living with his mother in Treuchtlingen, Germany, where she
gave birth to their first child, Harald, in April of 1944.
 Karl's parents' house. Heinrich-Aurnhammer-Straße 20, Treuchtlingen, Germany Backyard: Oma, Harald, Renata |
Treuchtlingen, a major railroad intersection was heavily bombed during WWII. Wife Renata used to tell stories about how she would ride a bicycle from farm house to farm house looking for food for her child, Harald, often stealing eggs from a nearby chicken coop.
In May, 1945, the Army Corp surrendered to the British, and shortly thereafter Karl was shipped to Bremerhaven to US and French internment. Unfortunately, President Eisenhower declared these soldiers to be “Disarmed Enemy Force” (DEF), therefore not protected by the Geneva Convention. During this period of time prisoners often died of starvation and exposure, and many were kept imprisoned until the 1950s. Karl was sent to camp #1001 (there were about 1,600 of them) and recalled much suffering there. He was actually able to exchange a patent he had - for making plastic prosthetic eyes - for an “early release” from imprisonment. In 1947; weak and malnourished, he was finally able to rejoin his family in Germany.
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Karl then finished his residency in ophthalmology in Bonn,
Germany.
After A r n o (1947) and Petra
(1953) were born, he decided to emigrate to the US or Canada, and while
waiting for the paperwork to go through – which took 7 years - he took his
family to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capitol city, where he was the
ophthalmologist of the Haile Selassie Hospital for three years.
In April 1957, the Illig family emigrated to the United States from Ethiopia via New York
City (Ellis Island had already been closed by then.). While obtaining his medical licensure, Karl worked at a state
hospital in Ogdensburg, NY. In 1958 Karl hung out shingles for his
ophthalmology practice; he moved his family first to Brookings, SD, then to
802 W. Pleasant Drive in
Pierre, the capitol city of South Dakota.
There Karl established an ophthalmology practice for the next nine years. He was the first ophthalmologist in South Dakota to have performed a corneal transplant.
By
now, Petra was in first grade,
A r n o
was in junior high, and
Harald was in
high school. Soon Karl took up flying lessons. It was as a relatively
low-time pilot (about 200 hours) that Karl experienced a catastrophic engine
failure while flying his Piper Cherokee 140 at night, in Florida, returning
form a medical conference with his wife and daughter on board. He never
lost his concentration and executed a perfect emergency landing between cars!
on an unlit rural highway. Renata made Karl quit flying after that, but he
was known to occasionally take flying lessons again or fly with Petra in
much later years.
LINK: Petra's website.
After the Oahe Dam near Pierre, SD was completed , the
Illig family moved
to Richland, WA, where Karl established a busy ophthalmology practice for the
next two decades. Harald by this time was in the US army, and
A r n o was
going to school in Austria in order to avoid the draft. This
was the time in Karl and Renata Illig’s lives where they started enjoying
the fruits of their hard labor and living their version of the American
dream. They enjoyed their friends - many of whom were scientists and art
lovers.
Karl had been drawing and painting all his life,
and loved collecting and repairing art and artifacts
[example]. Music was a huge part of his family life well. He also loved building
and inventing things and he frequently combined his
craftsmanship with art in his workshop. He even made many of his
own ophthalmologic instruments (He had a US patent on an instrument for
cataract operations, amongst others). Karl was talented.
Karl combined ophthalmology with art. He dwelt on the understanding of depth perception
( see
Karl's
article), probably because if his background
in optics.
After the war, he made prosthetic eyes for war veterans in
Germany - he would paint, using watercolors, the iris of a veteran's good
eye onto paper and imbed that into a Plexiglas prosthesis which he then manufactured
and fitted in his workshop.
In 1989, Karl and Renata relocated to the Kent-Auburn area to be close to
their daughter and her children, Peter and Lena. There they made another
set of wonderful friends, which is a recurring trait of Karl and Renata throughout
their life -- and wherever they went. Despite the difficulties he experienced
early in adult life, he never lost his sense of humor, and endeared himself
to many people. His intelligence and classical education from a bygone era
drew many people to him and to Renata. His German heritage came through
in everything that he touched.
A further relocation,
this time to Salt Lake City in Utah, occurred in 1999, once again, to
be close to daughter Petra and son Harald and to the grandchildren Peter
and Lena. Unfortunately wife Renata suffered a medical emergency shortly
after the move, and passed away suddenly on June 25, 1999, at the age of
89. Karl understandably became unhappy and restless after losing his wife
of nearly 55 years. In order to assist him with the daily chores, Petra
hired a live-in housekeeper named Jana Vance, aka Jana Cadden,
Janette Cadden, Jana Illig, JC Vance, who soon endeared herself to Karl, to the point where he
was in love with her. Despite urging to the contrary by his children, in
part because of the 33 year age difference, they married and began a life
together that spanned several communities in the last 8 years of Karl’s
life. They lived in the state of Washington - Richland, Spokane,
Stephenson, and
Vancouver.
(link: the house)
Karl's self portrait ca.
1992
Karl's Paintings
Karl's portrait of wife Renata
Wife / mother Renata 1943
Renata's
poetry:
Spätlese
|
In 2006 she talked Karl into
signing over his
house to her: |
 "Janette
Cadden" -- 3608 NE 45th St. Vancouver 68661, WA, USA 2009 address - Click HERE Jana Illig, a.k.a. Janette Cadden, Jana Vance, JC vance is trying to run away with Dr. Illig's things after his demise at the age of 97 -- or is this so ? Dr. Karl Illig signs a QUIT CLAIM DEED -- See GOOGLE maps
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Karl's self portrait ca.
1982
Karl's Paintings
These moves were not easy for Karl, who was by then well into his 90’s. Meaningful communication or visits with him by any of this children or friends became nearly impossible, as his new wife controlled his entire life as well as access to Karl. Although she seemed to take care of him and provided companionship for a few years, she may have contributed to the illusion in his mind that he had been abandoned by his children and forgotten by his friends. This was a terrible and heartbreaking time for all who cared about him.
Following a fall sometime in 2006, Karl became
increasingly frail and fragile, and needed constant help with the basics.
His wife often placed him in care facilities during these last two years,
which offered some opportunities to visit him. Petra, Peter and Lena snuck
in a surprise Christmas visit in 2007. By then he was wheelchair
bound, but still able to laugh and communicate. Finally, he was
hospitalized in November 2008, where Petra and Harald were able to visit him
extensively during his last month of life. These days and hours with him
were very meaningful, in that much was discussed and shared. He was even
able to speak with his friends in Germany on the telephone!
At the age of 97 he fell asleep for the last time on December 22, 2008, at
the
Ray
Hickey Hospice House (pic)
in Vancouver, WA.
Karl Illig is survived by his children, and Petra (Anchorage, AK),
Harald (Salt Lake City, UT), grandchildren
Peter, Lena (Anchorage, AK),
Sonya and
Sara (Austin, TX) and Julian
(Austria); and great-grand daughter Sasha (Austin, TX). He and
Renata had lead an amazing life. We
all miss them both.
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RENATA ILLIG
Gedichte |
Karl M. Illig and daughter Petra A. Illig.
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Ca. 1943.
August Illig (left), father of Dr. Karl M. Illig,
playing the piano with friend Webel (center).
August Illig was married to Kunigunde Grötsch.
She had a brother, Leonhard (right), who was killed in WW I.
August Illig's Geburtshaus,
father of Karl Illig.
Pfarrkirche St. Gangolf is in the background.
Stockwerkhaus am Marktplatz in Amorbach
Foto Burkhard Hechler
Read article - "TWO-EYEDNESS" AND "ONE -EYEDNESS"
OR
|STEREOPSIS
AND THE ARTS OF PAINTING AND PHOTOGRAPHY
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~ 2009 ~