Down-To-Earth Aristocrat

Down-To-Earth Aristocrat

He was tall, handsome, with silver hair, piercing blue eyes & a great smile. He was born in Tallinn, Estonia when it was still part of Imperial Russia. When he was 4 years old, his father was appointed Governor of Estonia by Tsar Alexander Romanov. He never went to school except with tutors until he left home at age 15 to attend the Imperial St. Petersburg University now called the Saint-Petersburg Polytechnic Institute. It was here that he first began to learn about the world away from Estonia & Russia.

His mother, a Swedish Countess, married his father, a Russian count & a man who was ½ Ukrainian & ½ Estonian. His father was also an ordained Lutheran pastor. At home his parents spoke German a since that was their common language. With the servants he spoke Estonia (Eesti) & with his father's business colleagues he spoke Russian. In the course of his studies at home he learned also Greek, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Latin, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Georgian, Hungarian, Romanian & English. He studied metallurgy & chemistry at the university. When the Russian Revolution began he made his way to Sweden on fishing boat owned by his mother's family. His mother also made it out. His father was murdered by the Bolsheviks. One of his older brothers was also killed. The rest of his siblings were sent to state schools or simply taken in by other relatives.

He made his way to France where he was hired as a radio officer on a freighter. He eventually made his way to Mobile, Alabama. There he met my grandmother & that was all she wrote! They married, he was hired by Tennessee Coal & Iron in Birmingham, Alabama as a metallurgist-chemist in their research lab. He eventually made to Chief of R&D there.

This man was a student of the world all things in it. He collected stamps, coins 1st. edition books, porcelain, raised prize winning Hemerocallis (day lilies) & read voraciously anything that caught his interest. He was fun for me to be around. He would answer questions, challenge me with questions, explain things like no one else & he taught me Russian!

He died when I was 12 and I miss him still. This man was a big guy, 6'6" tall, with a crew cut in the old Prussian-style, dressed well, always had the best of manners & made sure that I did as well. He had a dry but active sense of humor. He was a gourmet cook, taught me to try everything at least once, how to cook Russian foods, Estonian foods & to appreciate the sourness of fermented milk products such as keffir (clabber), yogurt, sour cream, tvorog cheese, goat & sheep milk cheeses & much more.

He always encouraged me to seek answers, be inquisitive & to not give up on subject untiol I had my answers. He had a sweet tooth for peppermint, dark chocolate & anything lemony sweet. Me too!

R.I.P. Grandfather, Carolus Magnus Saarre (Bloomfield), you are missed not just by me but my California cousins as well.