Russell J. Klingenmeir Jr. *56

Russell Klingenmeir, retired Navy captain, Civil Engineer Corps, died May 15, 2019, at age 96.

His engineering studies at Johns Hopkins were interrupted by World War II. Commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers, Klingenmeir arrived in France in 1944 and fought in Germany. He returned to the United State in 1947 and earned a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Hopkins in 1948. He then accepted a commission in the Civil Engineer Corps, U.S. Navy.

From 1951 to 1953, he was in charge of a construction battalion in Okinawa. In 1955 he was sent to Princeton for graduate studies in port and harbor engineering, earning a master’s in 1956. In 1959 he went to Thailand as deputy officer in charge of construction, Southeast Asia. Later assignments concerned facility planning for the Navy’s worldwide system of bases.

Promoted to captain, he reported in Saigon to the commander of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam as the force civil engineer. From 1968 to 1969 he managed the construction program supporting all naval operations. From 1969 to 1973 he was in Italy as chief of engineering and infrastructure of NATO’s Southern Command. Klingenmeir retired in 1974. A noteworthy 11-year consulting career followed.

He was predeceased by his wife, Katherine, in January 2019, prior to what would have been their 70th wedding anniversary.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.