HERMAN WALTER KLUGE

1951-2018

Herman Walter Kluge, 67, a longtime resident of Houston, Texas, passed away at home on June 2, 2018, after a long battle with cancer. Herman was born on February 9, 1951, in Galveston, Texas, to Floreen Jeanette Burney Kluge and Woodrow Carl Kluge, Sr. His parents, along with his brother Woodrow Carl Kluge Jr., preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Carol McDavid (Houston, Texas); his sisters and their husbands, Nancy and Barron Gimza (Denver, Colorado) and Marian and Tommy Jannett (San Marcos, Texas); his sisterin-law and husband Martha McDavid Newman and Kevin Newman (Wimberley, Texas); and (collectively) eight nieces/nephews, and seven great-nephews/nieces. Herman achieved notable success in both his corporate and creative lives. He had a 42-year career in facilities management and commercial real estate, in recent decades serving as a Senior Vice President at Amegy Bank and Vice President of Facilities and Administration at AIM Investments (now Invesco). He was also President of the Houston Chapter of the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA). He was a staunch inner-looper and Montrose resident, and truly loved his neighborhood, and his town. In addition to enjoying a successful corporate career, from the age of 13 his most abiding lifetime passion was music. Over the years he played in countless bands, in countless musical styles. He could play anything with frets and strings – but would sometimes say, with a grin, that “the guitar is the one I play pretty well”. He loved making music with friends, writing and recording his and others’ music (he was a prolific songwriter), and creating visual art and writing (short stories, poetry, and screenplays). In early 2017, he faced a second occurrence of head and neck cancer with hope, grace, and humor, and continued to affirm life with every fiber of his being until, with wife Carol and other family members at his side, he passed away peacefully on June 2, 2018. His family will hold a celebration of his life at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at two o’clock in the afternoon, Saturday, June 16, 2018. In lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Herman Kluge can be made to the oral cancer research fund at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (at www.mdanderson.org/ gifts, or directly to Dr. Ann Marie Gillenwater Research, P.O. Box 4486, Houston, TX 77210-4486) or to the charity of choice.