KNOX — August “Jeff” Landauer, Knox’s longtime highway superintendent, knew how to maintain roads and maintain relationships — with care and constancy. He didn’t hold grudges but took a wider view — like the one he’d get flying his airplane over the Hilltowns he loved.

 Mr. Landauer died peacefully at home on Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022. He was 69.

“He was great in every aspect of being a dad,” said his son, Justin Landauer. “He taught me a heck of a lot — how to weld, how to farm, how to be a good dad.”

“Jeff lived his life with a drive to excel in whatever he set his mind to,” his family wrote in a tribute. “He was a valued mentor to all his family and friends …. Jeff enjoyed his many friends with whom he shared many of his passions. Working several jobs during his lifetime from construction to highway superintendent, his favorite job was tending to his family farm and raising cattle.”

Mr. Landauer was one of seven children of the late Joseph and Shirley Landauer, who had fallen in love as students at Berne-Knox High School. Joseph Landauer had served Knox as an assessor, town justice, and councilman until his death in 1991.

Shirley Landauer stayed home to care for their seven children. “She raised her children in a clean and healthy home with good spiritual and solid 3Rs-type education,” her family said when she died in 2012.

“He had to go work on the farm every morning before school, and then after school, too,” said Justin Landauer of his father’s youth, living on the family’s dairy farm.

Mr. Landauer graduated from Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School in 1970 and began working construction jobs. His first goal was to pay for his own home by age 28, he once told The Enterprise. But, his son said, “He got sick of working out of town.”

Mr. Landauer came home and went to work for the town in 1976, first as a laborer and then as an equipment operator. He was appointed highway superintendent in 1985 and won his first election in November of that year.

He once recalled for The Enterprise his introduction to the town’s highway department — in 1958 when he was 6 years old. During a winter storm, Mr. Landauer’s father walked toward Township to buy some cigarettes at the old hotel and Jeff Landauer followed.

After catching a ride, they bought the cigarettes and walked over to the old town garage. “It was like walking into a cave,” Mr. Landauer said. A kerosene heater made it feel like 90 degrees to the boy who was bundled in winter clothing.

“I saw some legs under a truck and heard some hammering,” he said, recalling the highway superintendent was sitting back in his chair, arms stretched across his belly. Mr. Landauer then didn’t know he would one day be the superintendent — a post he held for 18 years.

Mr. Landauer’s life came to revolve around the highway garage. Many family trips and gatherings had to be canceled over the years with the threat of snow. Some winter nights, Mr. Landauer slept on a cot in a loft over the garage. He credited his sons, Justin and Jason, with taking care of the beef cattle on the family farm when he couldn’t get home.

Mr. Landauer said he felt like he knew not just every road but every ditch in town. He said he would often see pipes excavated that he buried himself years ago.

He said he sometimes felt like the town information center, too, as the only full-time employee who was handy to answer questions.

But Mr. Landauer lost his job in the 2003 election, a year when the Knox Democrats did not file paperwork on time and had to launch a last-minute write-in campaign for their candidates as they wouldn’t be on the ballot. Since Mr. Landauer also had the Conservative line, his 267 write-in votes were thrown out and Gary Salisbury, running on the Republican line, won with 268 votes on the GOP line to Mr. Landauer’s 220 on the Conservative line.

Mr. Landauer accepted his loss and moved on, his son said. “Bitterness ain’t going to get you anywhere in life,” said Justin Landauer. “His mentality was not to hold grudges.”

He went on to work for the University at Albany, his son said. “He plowed in the wintertime and did the lawn and grounds there in the summertime,” he said.

Mr. Landauer loved his family, farming, and flying his plane from his own runway at home. His son recalled there had been an airport in Delanson “between Dad’s house and Duanesburg.” His father, from his farm, could see the planes fly over the horizon and would watch the skydivers.

He worked to get his license and would fly around the Hilltowns. “He just loved the aerial view, the lay of the land,” said his son.

“He was teaching my brother to fly before he passed. He taught me how to fly,” said Justin Landauer, who did have time to get a license.

He did make time to restore two antique Model A Fords with his father — a pickup and a coupe, both from 1931.

“It was a ground-up restoration,” said Justin Landauer.

Reflecting on his father’s personality, Mr. Landauer said, “If you didn’t know him, you’d think he was a little rough around the edges. He had a great sense of humor.”

His father inspired a great work ethic in him and led him to be “the best person I could be,” Justin Landauer said. “He taught me to help other people when I can.”

“Jeff would not want anyone to mourn his passing but to merely remember him with a smile,” his family wrote, “remembering the things he did in life to brighten up someone else’s life.”

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August “Jeff” Landauer is survived by his son, Justin, and daughter-in-law, Lisa; he is the proud grandfather of Cadan Landauer; he is the beloved brother of Judi Stinson, Jackie Hallock and her husband, Clyde, and James Landauer and his wife, Laura; he is survived by his sister-in-law, Bonnie Landauer; and his uncle, David Schanz and his wife, Dianne; and by several cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.

He was the former husband of Lona Landauer and Debbie Landauer, and special friend of Sheila and Carol.

His parents, Anthony Joseph and Shirley (née Schanz) Landauer, died before him, as did his beloved son, Jason Landauer, and his brothers, Thomas, Joel, and John Landauer.

Family and friends may call at the Rock Road Chapel at 96 Rock Road in Berne on Saturday, Jan. 29, from 10 a.m. to noon.  A service will be held for family and close friends following visitation. 

Memorial messages may be left at www.altamontenterprise.com/milestones.

Memorial contributions may be made to Adirondack Model A Club, Post Office Box 1246, Clifton Park, NY 12065.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer

Justin Landauer 518-618-7553