Johann "Hans" Safer

Hans Safer died peacefully the early morning of Saturday, February 7th, in his 87th year, surrounded by his loving family at Golden Hill Rehab Center.

Johann "Hans" Safer, son of Johann and Juliana Safer, was born  on a small farm in Reith, Raabs an der Thaya, in the rural Waldviertel area of Austria on June 3, 1939, and was raised in the shadow of the Second World War. He moved to Poland with his family after his father was transferred there to work as a policeman. Afterwards, the family returned to Austria without his father, who was captured and sent to a prison camp in Russia for 8 years. During that time, Hans's mother raised him and his younger brother alone. Hans described his mother as a caring and serious-minded person, a strict Catholic who valued education above all else, and who instilled in Hans a resilience and determination that would prepare him to build a life of adventure and curiosity.

After the war, Hans pursued an education in engineering and landed a job designing furniture in Vienna, which he excelled at, and in 1961 he took up an offer to work at Bethlehem Furniture in Pennsylvania. After taking night classes to improve his English, his teachers encouraged him to apply to Penn State, and his curiosity led him to shift fields entirely from woodworking to electrical engineering and the emerging field of computer science. There, he also found other expatriates from Austria and Germany, many of whom became his lifelong friends.

In 1969 he graduated and was hired as a programmer by IBM in Kingston, New York. IBM sponsored him to earn his Master's Degree in Computer Science from RPI in 1972.

After taking early retirement from IBM in 1989, Hans embraced yet an even more active chapter in life. He loved to kayak, hike and was a life-long ski enthusiast. He taught others how to enjoy the slopes at Hunter Mountain until he was 73 years old. Alongside that, he started working as a tour guide for German-speaking visitors from 1989 until 2001. He delighted in introducing tourists to New York City, Boston, Niagara Falls, Canada, and Washington, D.C., proudly sharing his adopted country through the lens of his native language. He always maintained a deep connection with his hometown in Austria, and would visit twice a year to keep up with his family and friends there.

Outside of his professional life, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to having a good time with the German-American community in the Hudson Valley. He was active in the Männerchor in Kingston, the IBM Ski Club and was involved in many "Schuhplattler" folk dancing events. He also began hosting his German music program on WKNY in 1987 and for the next 35 years he would spin songs from his massive personal collection of German-language folk records every Sunday. His voice and music connected and uplifted people with German-speaking heritage from the entire region. A busy and popular guy even in his retirement, there was one thing that Hans hadn't managed to do yet - get married.

That would change one December afternoon in 2012, when he met one of his avid radio show listeners, Maria Dijk, also a transplant from the Waldviertel area of rural Austria who moved to Kingston in 1985. Their meeting would spark a beautiful relationship that culminated in sharing their vows in 2019, when Hans was 80 years old.

Hans was preceded in death by his beloved brothers Erich and Rudi Safer.

Hans is survived in Austria by his sister-in-law, Gertraud Safer; his nephew Reinhard Safer and Reinhard's wife Monika Safer; and their two children, his godson Florian and Max, and cousins. In the United States, Hans is survived by his wife Maria and his step-children and their spouses, Raphael and Schuyler Dijk, and Sjoerd Dijk and Felisa Funes.

Hans will be remembered as a man of perseverance and self-invention, a craftsman turned computer scientist turned dj and ski instructor, an immigrant who built a full and generous life in a new country, and a devoted steward of the things he loved most, his music, his heritage and his friends.

Hans will also be remembered as a joy to be around, easy to spot in his Austrian green wool jacket and hunting hat, he was always the life of the party, a fun-loving mensch who always had a joke up his sleeve.

A Graveside service and burial will be held Sunday February 22nd at 11:00AM at Montrepose Cemetery. Meet at the front gate at 75 Montrepose Avenue in Kingston. A Celebration of life to follow at Kingston Maennerchor and Damenchor, 37 Greenkill Avenue in Kingston.