January 4, 1927 – October 27, 2015. Clement Karel Hyer was born to James and Audrey Hyer on January 4, 1927 at Balboa Naval Air Station, San Diego, Calif.
He joined his older brothers James Edgar and John Thomas, and later his younger sister Ramona Estelle was born.
His father was career Navy and the family spent many years on Hawaii. He was very close to his grandparents, W.S and Lettie Sankey. After his father’s death, the family increased in size when Audrey married Floyd Bryant and Floyd’s son, Del Bryant joined the family. They lived in Sweet Home and also in the Lincoln City area.
Karel was a good athlete in high school, and passed up an invitation to try out to play professional baseball in Seattle, when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 16.
Karel served in the Pacific during World War II, including Japan, Bikini Atoll, Guam and Iwo Jima. He tells stories of surviving six plane crashes, and walking away from five of them. (He swam away from the other one when it missed the aircraft carrier landing.)
After the war, Karel logged in the western states. Following serious injuries in a logging accident, Karel changed careers when hired by the Sweet Home Police Department.
He married the love of his life, Joe Ann Moyer in 1949. Their first son, Floyd Thomas, died at six weeks in 1950. Karel and Joe Ann were loving and attentive parents to C. Karel II, Laura Nadine and Joe Lynne. As a family, they were active square dancers, fished and camped together, and Karel was also an avid hunter.
Karel was hired by the Lebanon Police Department, and was Lebanon’s chief of police for many years. In 1964, he graduated from the FBI National Academy, Session 71 and was recognized by J. Edgar Hoover for his contributions cataloging the classes and documenting the program in notebooks. His graduation honors were presented by U.S. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and J. Edgar Hoover.
Karel was a member of a group in law enforcement and state government who established hiring and training standards for police officers in Oregon and was instrumental in establishing the Board on Police Standards and Training and the Oregon Police Academy. Karel would become a long-time staff member at BPST and retired as the deputy director.
He was active in multiple law enforcement associations, including the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police, the FBI Academy Alumni Association, the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, the Oregon Peace Officers Association and the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association. He held national offices in many of these organizations.
Karel was a lifetime member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the American Legion.
Karel loved golfing, and after his retirement, he and Joe Ann moved to Yuma, Ariz., where he could golf in the winter, and enjoy the sunshine, but returned to Oregon in the summer, and enjoyed camping at Taylor Park.
Recently, the couple relocated to Oregon. Karel was a loyal and generous friend, a loving, supportive and encouraging father, uncle and grandfather, and the most attentive and caring husband a wife could want, as he recently became a tender caregiver for his soul mate Joe Ann.
Karel died Oct. 27, 2015 at age 88, and is survived by his loving wife of 66 years, Joe Ann; son Clement Karel II; daughter Laura Zetter (Einar “Bud” Zetter); daughter Joe Lynne Rader (Bob Rader); five grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and many step-grands and great-grandchildren.
Also surviving are his brother John Thomas Hyer, sister Mona Waibel and sister-in-law Reeta Bryant.
He was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers James Hyer and Delmer Bryant, his son Floyd Thomas, and grandchildren Marcus Lee and Katrina Joe Risteen. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Sweet Home Elks on Saturday, November 21, 2015, at 1:00 p.m.