Karl Klaesius passed away on Saturday, January 29, 2022, in San Luis Obispo, CA, after battling lung disease. He was 73.
Karl was born in January 1949 in Littleton, Colorado, and, at the age of 4, moved with his family to Solana Beach in northern San Diego County, California. Karl was the youngest child of John Turner Klaesius and Jeannette Klaesius, with siblings Jean, John Paul, and Sue, 10, 6, and 4 years his elder, respectively.
He attended Palomar College before serving his country with the United States Navy. Karl and his wife Sheila, a nurse, met in 1974 on a camping trip in the southern California desert with mutual groups of friends. The pair married in April 1975 in Atherton, California, and moved to California’s Central Coast to begin their life together.
A lifelong learner filled with passion and curiosity, Karl found his way to engineering, procurement, and operations management. After a 20-plus-year career with PG&E, he fostered his love of education and began teaching supply chain management through APICS, an international not-for-profit educational organization, and chaired its Board of Directors in 2010. In addition, he found joy in serving his community in many ways, through APICS, the Santa Margarita 4-H, and the Atascadero Elks, to name a few.
Karl’s inherent inquisitiveness made him a natural student. He and Sheila traveled extensively, visiting over 30 countries during their 46 years of marriage. He found joy in meeting new people and always took the time to pause, take a breath, and ask: how are you, really? With many puns and phrases in his arsenal—not to mention a penchant for barking at inopportune moments—some of the family’s favorites sayings included “Don’t sweat the small stuff and, yes, it’s all small stuff,” “Just take it one day at a time,” and “Life is short, eat dessert first.” Karl had a knack for making the impossible seem possible, and the painful not quite so bad.
In addition to his wife Sheila Nancy Klaesius, of Atascadero, CA, Karl is survived by his daughter and son-in-law Erin & Jeff Randolph and grandson, Jackson Karl Randolph, age 10; sister and brother-in-law, Jean and Hans Mohnen; nephews Jeff and Chuck Mohnen and their families; and sister Sue Heitzman.
To honor his memory, Karl would have loved for you to go check out a San Francisco Giants or San Luis Blues baseball game, nerd out about the solar system, or listen to Alison Kraus, Etta James, or George Strait. Should you be so inclined, the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation gratefully accepts memorial donations. Click Here.
A memorial celebration is to be scheduled for Spring.
