12/31/2023
We miss you Dad, all our love!!
Clifford Gary Niederer (Cliff) passed away on December 18, 2023, at his home in La Jolla, CA. A home he shared with his beloved wife, Mia Pearson, who was the love of his life.
Cliff’s hearty laugh filled many rooms with warmth, joy, and often a bit of flair. He loved to engage in thoughtful, energic conversations about life with friends and family. Whether it was flying, spearfishing, swimming, sailing, collecting art and books, wood working, boat building, fly fishing, or being a wine connoisseur - Cliff had a wide array of interests that he approached with a curiosity and passion that lead him to be an expert in whatever he pursued. He approached life with a fearlessness and drive that was revered by those around him.
Born on September 15, 1946, in Arcadia, CA, Cliff was the only child of Clifford and Dorothy Niederer. As a child, he developed a love for reptiles, collecting tribal artifacts, traveling, swimming, skin diving, reading, and weightlifting. These passions would remain with him throughout his life. He graduated high school from La Salle College Preparatory school in 1964 and earned a degree in psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1970. While in college his father-in-law introduced him to sailing and in 1968, he purchased his first sailboat, an 18-foot Mercury-class sloop, and thus began his long love affair with sailing and boat building.
After college, he became a police officer with the Corte Madera (CA) police department. By the early 1970s, he was living in Sausalito, CA on his 32-ft schooner, Viator, and immersed in the world of sailing and boat building. Cliff then moved to Tomales Bay (Inverness, CA) to pursue traditional wooden boat building full-time. He would construct six boats over the next eight years. Two Friendship sloops, two Whitehall rowing boats, a 38-ft tugboat hull, and the Dorothy Marie, a 41-ft coaster-type schooner. Cliff launched the Dorothy Marie in 1980, and later stepped the masts and rigged the boat in the Puget Sound (Bainbridge Island, WA) where he lived from 1981-1983. Cliff cruised the Dorothy Marie from Alaska to Mexico and lived on the boat in Sausalito until he sold it in 1987. All these events and later sailing adventures are well chronicled in his book “Schooners, Seekers, and Seas” published in 2016.
After selling the Dorothy Marie, Cliff moved his passion for design and fine woodworking ashore to work on residential and commercial remodels, custom furniture design, and fine woodworking under Niederer Architectural Design and Fine Woodworking. His projects varied from wine-tasting bars in Napa, to a Japanese bathhouse on the Mendocino coast, to custom built offices in San Francisco. In 1990, he earned his architectural degree from the UC, Berkeley. Over the next twenty-three years, he lived in Sausalito, Mill Valley, and Sonoma (CA) where he raised his son, Jonathan, and started a life with his wife Mia while making frequent trips to Tomales Bay and the Mendocino coast for kayaking, sailing, and spear fishing adventures. He later retired and moved with Mia to La Jolla, CA. In retirement, he became a pilot and just this year passed all requirements for a commercial pilot’s license. He also enjoyed spending summers in Montana, where he became an avid seaplane pilot and enjoyed exploring high-country lakes around Whitefish, MT. Cliff was a Senior Advisor to the private equity real estate firm, Hapgood Capital, and had his acting debut playing the part of a crime boss in his son Jonathan’s latest movie “The Kills.”
Cliff is survived by his wife, Mia Pearson; two sons: Jonathan Niederer (LA), Christopher Niederer (Germantown, TN) and wife Sandra Saunders; three grandkids: Sabrina Elmore (Hendersonville, NC) and husband Mark Elmore, Madison and Grant Niederer (Germantown, TN); and two adorable great-granddaughters: Ava and Vera Elmore (Hendersonville, NC.) He is predeceased by his parents Clifford and Dorothy Niederer. Charitable contributions in Cliff’s memory may be made to the Ocean Conservancy or the American Cancer Society.
