No raining on their parade

He has been recognized numerous times by the Southern California Restaurant Writers for the excellence of the cuisine at the Hotel Laguna, which Andersen has owned since 1985. He is a founder of the Laguna Beach Hospitality Assn. that morphed into the Visitors and Conference Bureau, which draws thousands of tourists annually to Laguna.

But it isn’t his foresight or his cooking skills that have endeared him to Lagunans.

“Over the years, Claes has been generous in providing venues for fundraisers for many of our civic organizations,” Quilter said.

His community involvement includes the Laguna Playhouse, SchoolPower, Laguna Art Museum, Pageant of the Masters and the Laguna College of Art & Design.

“The fire of 1993 when 366 families lost their homes still sears memories here,” Quilter said. “Many will never forget his gallant gesture in opening the doors of the Hotel Laguna to those who lost homes, even as his own home was being destroyed, along with precious family heirlooms.

“He also repeated this unselfish action in the El Nino Floods of 1998 and I happened to be a beneficiary of that.

“Claes we salute you.”

Andersen chose to come to America. The 2008 Patriot of Year didn’t, Quilter said.

?Robert Meyerhof was born in Germany. His father was Jewish, not a happy circumstance after Adolf Hitler came into power. Meyerhof was spirited out of the country as a teenager, first to Switzerland and then to the United States.

When World War II broke out, Meyerhof tried to enlist, but was rejected because he was technically an enemy alien.

He secured three letters of recommendation and finally was “voluntarily inducted” into the U.S. Army. Like many Bavarians, Meyerhof learned to ski at an early age.

The army put this ability to good use, assigning him to teach skiing to troops which were to become the famed 10th Mountain Division.

Meyerhof later trained as a medic.

He was deployed with the 10th’s 86th Mountain Infantry Regiment to Italy. In its 114-day battle up the spine of the Appenines, the 10th Division scored significant success against the German divisions, but the cost was horrific: 992 killed and 4,154 wounded.

Meyerhof was awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Medical Badge for his actions in the bloody campaign.

After Germany surrendered, Meyerhof’s division was scheduled for duty in the Pacific, but the war ended before it was deployed.