Mr. Peter Kurt Walter Dehmel

Peter Kurt Walter Dehmel, 83, passed away Tuesday, August 9, 2022. He was a longtime resident of Carmel.
Peter was born October 1, 1938, in Hamburg, Germany, to Walter Heinrich Dehmel and Erika Martha Maria (Wilke) Dehmel. Young Peter grew up in a Germany ravaged by World War II. After Walter was conscripted into military service and shipped to the Eastern Front, Erica closed the family tailor shop and journeyed with 2-year-old Peter to Wurchow, Poland, to stay with relatives in safer surroundings on a farm. Some of Peter’s earliest memories were sleeping with animals in the hay barn.
As the war shifted and the Russians advanced west, Peter and his mother fled the farm on the last train out of the city. They returned to Hamburg only to endure the Allied fire-bombing of the city, racing to underground bomb shelters as air raid sirens screamed overhead.
By war’s end, Erika and Peter, by then 7, were reunited with Walter, the sole survivor of his unit on the Russian front. They began to rebuild their lives by foraging for coal among the rubble and trying to meet their basic needs. Peter grew up, finished his secondary education, and began working as a licensed export/import merchant. But when a sponsorship opportunity arose to emigrate to the United States on a path to citizenship, the Dehmel family relocated to Indianapolis, speaking little English and leaving behind all they knew.
Peter enrolled as an undergraduate student at Butler University, supporting himself by doing landscaping in Holcomb Gardens. He planted trees and flowerbeds that still beautify the campus today and worked on the team that constructed the reflecting pool at Holcomb’s Carrillon Tower. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting followed by an MBA. As a certified public accountant, Peter began to grow his private practice as well as teach business courses at Butler. It was as an accounting teacher that Peter met undergraduate student Joan Haskel. They were married in the campus chapel on August 2, 1975. Daughter Carole Joan Erika Dehmel was born the following year.
For more than 50 years, Peter worked as a CPA in Speedway, owning and operating Dehmel and Associates, PC. While boasting many personal clients, he also served several large associations, including the Indiana Funeral Directors Association, for many years. Peter took great pride in his work, applying the survival skills of his youth, the determination of an immigrant and the achievement of higher education to create a thriving, successful firm.
In his leisure time, Peter enjoyed boating and water skiing, snow skiing, snorkeling in the tropics, gardening and collecting American Indian artwork and artifacts.
Survivors include his wife, Joan Dehmel of Carmel; daughter Carole Dehmel of New Palestine, Ind.; stepson Jason (Amy) DeWitt of Westfield; and four grandchildren: Grant, Olivia, Rachel and Natalie DeWitt.
A private Celebration of Life service is planned. Memorial contributions are suggested in Peter’s memory to the donor’s favorite charity.
You are invited to read Peter’s obituary at www.stpierrefamilyfuneral.com, where you may leave a condolence for the family.
Arrangements are entrusted to Simplicity Funeral & Cremation Care—Zionsville.

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