Karl James Hildinger was born in Danville, California in 1931. He passed away at home, surrounded by family, in South Lake Tahoe on November 11, 2018.
Three weeks after he was born, Jim was carried into Angora Lakes Resort in a Washoe papoose basket.He was a staunch environmentalist and spent his lifetime protecting and preserving Angora and the greater Lake Tahoe Basin.The Angora Lakes Resort remains in the family.
Jim served in the Army from 1956-1958, playing 1st violin in the 7th Army Symphony in Germany. He taught instrumental music in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District for 29 years to hundreds of high school, middle school and elementary school students.He also performed as a violinist in the Reno area.
He was a self-taught black and white photographer.Many of his photographs are in private collections throughout Lake Tahoe and in his book, Tahoe in Black & White.He gave his thousands of negatives and proofs to the University of Nevada, Reno, for posterity.
Jim was an avid wintertime sailor on Lake Tahoe and spent many delightful hours in Emerald Bay surrounded by good friends. He was a lifetime member of the Windjammers Yacht Club, which he helped to found in 1974. He participated in many sailing races on Lake Tahoe.
He is survived by his wife, Gloria Hildinger, his son Eric & daughter-in-law Trish Hildinger, his grandson Lee Hildinger, and his daughter Judith Hildinger & son-in-law Eric Meader.To all those he leaves behind, he says “thank you”. There will be no memorial service at this time.
Tributes
Leave a tributeJim has always been embedded in my heart. I knew him probably at least 60 years, he was so special to me. I don't know how old I was when I remember we were staying at the resort and Jim brought up this beautiful woman named Gloria, took her out on the sunfish and they just glowed---we were all rooting for him to marry her! That was probably my first real memory. Then they just pile up from there...his dedication to try to preserve the sanctity of Tahoe, and his strength in putting up with all the flack a vocal part of the community gave him---I remember him being a legend way back when I started working for the Forest Service in South Tahoe in 1976.
His passion for gorgeous photographs, his energetic pursuit of beauty in nature, and also his energetic adoration of the mountains. The beauty of Tahoe = Jim Hildinger in my opinion. He has been a huge chapter of my life, almost all of it, and his passing takes a piece of me with it. But when we are up in the mountains I am sure we will hear him whispering "live your life to the fullest", he will always be there in that perfectly twisted juniper, that white snag against the cerulean blue sky, that perfect calm lake, those cliffs highlighted with a dusting of snow, that perfect reflection of the rock in the lake....I will feel him everywhere I look when I am out there.
Love always,
Nancy Holzhauser and Alan Work
So much has been said about the amazing life that Jim lived and shared with so many of us. My first memories as a youngster go back to the early 60s when the folks would take us to this amazing spot called Angora. Jim was just a young buck back then, but had such passion for the Lake and surroundings that even as young as I was, I remember feeling something special. I remembered the first time hiking Echo Peak with Jim, all I wanted to do was to keep up with him (good luck there) and be like him. So many good memories, maybe one day we can all meet and take a couple of days to share our most cherished moments we have been blessed with.
Jim, you will be missed. We will continue to protect the wilderness and the environment in your honor. Love to all!
I remember Jim as the ultimate steward of the Angora Lakes--whether he was simply raking the beach or watering down dust behind the store, or in constant motion with a tool belt. I can’t count the times Jim gave me advice on how to fix this or that and how to be a good maintainer of our lower lake cabin. Once in late October after a bear ripped off siding and made a mess of our cabin, Jim hauled out trash, secured the place for winter, and even had the high school shop class mill boards to replace the originals no longer manufactured. Wow.
Jim was my link to Angora’s history. He filled my memory’s spaces with recollections of the lower lake’s past on multiple occasions over a gin and tonic or lemonade. I will always be grateful for the history of the resort he put into writing, and for his love of the area he put into his enduring photographs. And I will miss Jim every summer—his wry humor, his straight-shooting conversation, his so-obvious love of all Angora.
My heartfelt condolences to everyone in his immediate family, everyone in his extended summer family, and to the mountains he loved.
Many years later, I reconnected with Jim and met his lovely family when I hiked to Angora with a friend who knew him well. We signed up for the cabin wait list that year and were lucky enough to get in the following year.
One of my fondest memories is of our third year at Angora. It started snowing while we were in the truck on the way up from the parking lot. It was the first time my children had ever seen snow falling. It snowed hard for 3 days straight. On day two, Jim & Gloria went down to town and brought back saucers and sleds and hats and gloves. Jim took the large group of kids staying that week down the road a bit to a place he had determined was a great sledding hill and handed out the goodies. The children came back to the cabins exhausted and wet and hungry - with the biggest smiles on their faces I’ve ever seen. It was a sweet slice of what my childhood was like, given as a gift to my children by a very kind and generous man and his kind and generous wife.
I have so many wonderful memories of Jim through the many years of spending one week of my summer in the heaven of Angora. I will cherish each and every one. I will miss you dearly Jim.
I remember the day we stumbled upon Upper Angora Lake. We brought a picnic, but locked all of our valuables in the car, not knowing there were boats to rent. Jim & Gloria were so gracious and let us use a rowboat, saying "Send us the money when you get home." Jim was driving out when we started walking down and offered us a ride. I admit I was a bit intimidated by this gruff fellow but recognized the best of his generation in him, and respected his get the job done attitude that didn't put up with foolishness.
I am grateful that I got to know him a little better each year when we started renting Red Fir. The last time we left he ran down the list of the things people always forget...
Cell charger? Got it.
Other cell charger? Got it.
Shoes under the bed? Got it.
Suitcase stashed on shelf? Got it.
We were feeling pretty smug...
Ice cream in the freezer? Oh yeah!
Our ice cream bars!
He was tickled that he got one on us,
and so we're we.
Love, Louise & Roger
Our sincere condolences to you all. --Brandon and Trisha Kett
When I rediscovered this treasure of a place in the 1970s, I asked the person who answered the phone(must have been Effie) whether she remembered the white-haired German lady with 3 little kids wearing miniature back packs and hiking to the peak with pebbles under our tongues, so we wouldn't get too thirsty. She replied "Oh, of course, we remember you!" The kids were our cousin Rick Dietz, my brother Bob Dietz and myself. After a couple of years on the waiting list, we achieved the third week of July as a treasured reservation. I think the only year I've missed was 2014 when my first grandchild was born in the middle of "our week."
During all those years since, Jim was a constant - a gruff but loving guardian of this little piece of Paradise. "Get your dog out of the lake!" he'd holler, but he was all smiles to greet our return each year. He was ''johnny-on-the-spot" when the inevitable accidents happened to the cliff jumpers.
I hope that Jim is sitting on a bench somewhere with John Muir, discussing their efforts to preserve the beauty and health of the Sierras, Lake Tahoe and, especially, Angora.
My love and condolences to Gloria, Judith, Eric, and the whole family.
Be at peace now.
Leave a Tribute
With much gratitude to the HIldinger's for preserving this magical spot, and with love to you Jim, I know I will miss you this year especially. Fondly, Claudia
Packing In
My sister Gretchen and I first walked into Marjorie and Ridgeway's (Gillis) Lower Angora cabin with little backpacks in 1959 when we were very young. I don't think I was carrying much - but I remember the rucksack and that I did not get carried in because my dad was carrying little brother, Teddy. Fast forward 35 years and I had my three kids carry their backpacks in with the youngest, Kyle, at 1 1/2 years old. He carried all his diapers and had his life jacket stacked on top of his rucksack towering over his head. We made it up the road across the Lower Lake from the Gillis Cabin, but did not know how to alert Cousin Carol that we were there - Jim came to our rescue honking his horn to wake up the cabins. He couldn't get over little Kyle with his huge load. I can remember the wry smile and he was still talking about it the next day when we came up for the traditional lemonade Popsicles.
I kept abreast of the fires in 2004 on behalf of the family and had long talks with Jim in the aftermath about what could have been done and how to move forward in saving the Tahoe Basin for the future. He had Angora in his soul and we are all the richer for it.
Inspiration
Since first experiencing Angora Lake as a small child in the early 1950’s, the Hildinger family and my family have developed a lasting friendship. My connection to Angora Lake, and especially my memories of Jim Hildinger, is built on our yearly summer vacations there. Our time at the Lake every August was and is always something to look forward to. A large part of that positive experience is due to Jim and the Hildinger family being protective of the Lake and surrounding natural environment. Their love and respect for Angora is a legacy that continues to this day.
Jim’s appreciation and respect for the immense natural beauty of Angora Lake inspired my family in many ways. My mother, Alva Steccati, took inspiration for her watercolors from the rocks, trees and water as do I.
My father, Hugo, was a professional photographer. Over the decades, he took many photos of the ancient twisted junipers, majestic cliff and watery reflections. He also shot many images of Jim and the Hildinger family. On the “Gallery” page I have included five of Hugo's black and white images showing Jim during a music recital at the lake, the “Green Mule” making a rooster-tail as it sped along Angora's shoreline, and a rare shot of Jim actually relaxing on the beach.
Jim gave my brother, Leo, one of his first jobs, as a summer-time helper at the resort. Leo lived in his little room behind the store, known as “Leo’s Pad”.
So many memories: Jim standing at the doorway of the dining room, ringing the dinner bell, dressed in his white waiter-jacket. Jim giving us moonlit rides across Angora Lake in the “big” sailboat (equal parts electrifying and terrifying for me) as Jim expertly maneuvered the swiftly moving boat through the dark water to the waterfall cascading down the cliff.
In the early 1960s, the Telstar communications satellite had been launched into orbit. The evening of our weekly Angora campfire, Jim told us that Telstar would be visible late that night as it crossed the sky over Echo Peak. Much later in the evening, as the campfire embers glowed in the darkness, many of our fellow campers had headed back to their cabins. But several of us stayed, including Jim of course. We were thrilled and awed to see the lights of Telstar as it traversed the night sky against a backdrop of countless stars.
One of my other vivid memories of Jim is his recounting the long-ago experience of being at Angora Lake during a rare August snowfall. I have memories of that same morning, seeing the old wooden row boats covered with snow. As Jim looked on smiling, my father took a photo of me writing my name in the snow on the side of one of the boats.
Lunch in Emerald Bay
We all knew Jim expected us all to be at the boat camp dock at noon when we were sailing for a nice lunch including the red checkered table cloth that I'm told only came out when I was in Tahoe in the winter. Jim also used to bring crystal glasses for the winter to our special lunches. I wrote a poem that kinda says it all.
If I could only write,
A poem a story or a quip….
Describing the “winter sailors” in Tahoe,
I wouldn’t know where to start
…. and where to quit!!!!!!
If I could only write,
The story would begin
With a warm & sunny winter day,
A sailboat, Lake Tahoe, and Captain Jim
A friendly smile, an invitation
Was all that it would take
I could never have guessed,
The warm friendships I’d make
Out on that beautiful, cold lake
I’m reminded when we sail of rule number ONE
Stay on the boat and always have fun.
Looking for Eagles, short walks on shore
Even my own rock garden!!
Who could ask for more?
Noon is lunch time for us all
Cadenza arrives promptly at the Pier
… equipped with red checkered table cloth ..…
Red wine and sometimes beer
Great stories and laughs….
….snacks, fruit & cheese,
little Danish sandwiches, tea
and usually sardines !
There’s always time for joking,
The boys each telling their own tale
Of races that were won or lost
How and why….
And who was using “which sail”
And so what? if a fender …..was left off the side ??
So what? if one of them
choose their own path…. “outside”…??
he has his “hundred ton”
and surely has been there before…. Right???? Steve?
…. A walk up the hill and back to the boat
…and then out fail,
CHOCOLATE … and of course,
More wine before we sail
But before we cast off at the end of the day
We’ve already planned our next time together
For “lunch at noon, in Emerald Bay”
So in closing I thank you
For making my “work” time there fun
…. For caring and sharing,
Great times on the lake in the sun
…. For being subjects in my photos
… Tolerating wine stains and all my gear,
For patiently teaching me
Sailing 101… year after year!!
For friendships and laughter and our “special” lunch
But mostly for allowing me to spend time each winter
Getting to know this truly “crazy bunch”