BLUEFIELD – Friends and colleagues took time Tuesday to remember the contributions of a business leader and World War II veteran who was noted for his integrity, principles and devotion to family and country.
Max Kammer, 89, passed away late Monday evening. Kammer, whose family business Kammer Furniture & Appliance Co. has long been a fixture on Bland Street in Bluefield, was a decorated veteran who was part of the Allied army that liberated German concentration camps.
“I’ve lived in Bluefield all my life, and I’ve always known about Kammer Furniture and Max Kammer,” said Mayor Linda Whalen of Bluefield. “He was a pillar of the community and such a gentleman, just a lover of our country, certainly, and he loved Bluefield. He will be greatly missed by this city. We feel like we’ve lost one of our strongholds.”
Longtime friends and associates always knew Max Kammer as a person who could be counted on to help his city.
“I’ve known him since we came to Bluefield in 1954, “ said Al Modena of Bluefield, Va. “He was a man of integrity and good principles, and he was devoted not only to his family and his furniture business, but to the community, and served all three of them very well. He was always dependable, always trustworthy.”
Kammer was born March 26, 1920, in Williamson, and moved to Bluefield with his family in 1938. He began his career at Kammer Furniture Co. in 1946.
Kammer’s business often took him to long-time establishments such as First Century Bank. Bank President R.W. “Buz” Wilkinson said he had known the furniture merchant and community leader since coming to Bluefield in 1962.
“Max is one of the true businessmen of Bluefield,” Wilkinson said. “He’s run a very successful furniture store in downtown Bluefield. He’s been a strong business leader. I believe he was on the parking commission when parking was a major problem.”
Kammer had a positive attitude wherever he went.
“I don’t know if I ever saw him in the bank when he was not smiling and happy and had something positive to say,” Wilkinson added. “He occasionally fought for things he thought were right, but he did it in a gentlemanly way. He will be missed.”
Many of Kammer’s friends and associates knew him in more than one role. Marc Meachum, president of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce, knew him not just through chamber activities, but also as a businessman and community volunteer.
“Well, not just my role here. I was involved in merchant activities with him when I had H & M Shoe Store. He was a very loyal supporter of the community and downtown Bluefield in particular,” Meachum said.
For decades, Kammer was involved in numerous civic and community organizations, including the Red Cross, Union Mission, Salvation Army, United Way, Parking Commission, Chamber of Commerce and Sales Executive Club. He was past commander of Riley-Vest Post No. 9 and past president of the Ahavath Sholom congregation and B’nai B’rith.
In 1994, Kammer was the recipient of the American Legion Riley-Vest Post No. 9 Distinguished Citizenship Award, and in 1999 he received the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award.
Kammer was involved in many nurturing projects that often help bring out the best in people, but while serving with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, he was among the first Americans to witness one of the darkest chapters in history, the Holocaust.
“Max was a concentration camp liberator,” said Rabbi Stanley Funston of Bluefield. “He was one of the first into Buchenwald.”
Using a confiscated German camera, Kammer shot photographs at one of Buchenwald’s satellite death camps, Ohrdruf, near Weimar, Germany. Several of his photographs of the horrors that he and other soldiers witnessed there are on display at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. He also used them as part of a Holocaust Symposium he created once he returned to Bluefield.
“Those experiences helped shape who I think Max Kammer was,” Funston said. “He really spent a lot of his life telling people about the horrors of the Holocaust.”
Kammer was also an important part of his synagogue, Congregation Ahavath Sholom, in Bluefield, Funston said.
“Taking care of the building really was his labor of love,” Funston added. “He did so much around here and he did so many things nobody really knew about. He was there to help when it was needed, without a lot of fanfare. If something needed to be done, you could count on Max to do it.”
Local News
March 10, 2010
Longtime Bluefield businessman Kammer remembered as ‘pillar of the community’
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