David Kautz kept a low profile
David Kautz
Mayor’s husband, who quietly served his community, dies of cancer at age 67
by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers
The late David Kautz kept a low profile in Burnsville and its politics.
He was a quiet partner in the public life of his wife, Elizabeth, Burnsville’s mayor and current president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
“He was the sign guy” during election seasons, said Elizabeth, who was first elected mayor in 1994. “And he knew every place in Burnsville. He was very diligent about making sure that on the night of the election, by 10 o’clock, he would have all of the signs down. And he would finish it up the next day if we had any left.”
David Kautz died of cancer on Sept. 1, 2010. He was 67.
An Iowa native, David met Elizabeth when both attended the University of Iowa. They married in 1968 and moved to Burnsville 10 years later.
“He was a very quiet and understated person,” Elizabeth said. “He supported me and the things that I did, but what people don’t realize is that David would do things for people in need.”
A number of times he took on household chores for neighborhood families stricken by serious illnesses, Elizabeth said.
“This is the way that David showed his care and his support of the community and the people in the community,” she said. “When he would be asked to help take Meals on Wheels with one of our neighbors, he would do that. He never did anything to draw attention to himself, but he would quietly do the things he thought were the right things that cared about people.”
A college golfer and “great American,” David landed special-service duty on a military golf team while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Elizabeth said.
“When the war broke out he gave up the special service to go fight for his county in Vietnam,” she said.
He worked for 42 years in the floor-covering industry. Diagnosed with cancer in May 2008, he continued to work as a manufacturer’s representative until May of this year, Elizabeth said.
She is a survivor of uterine cancer and breast cancer.
“What we have always said to ourselves is that this is part of the journey,” Elizabeth said. “It’s what we do with the journey that we’ve been blessed or privileged to have, and how it shapes us as human beings.”
She and the couple’s two sons – Kyle of Portland, Ore., and Kevin of Laguna Nigel, Calif. – cared for David at home during the last two months of his life, which was a “blessing,” Elizabeth said.
“But it was also very difficult to see my husband, whom I loved dearly and whom the boys loved dearly, change in his physicality from what he was,” she said.
David was preceded in death by his parents, Virginia and Roy Kautz. In addition to his wife and sons, survivors include his brother, Fred (Joan), of LaCrosse, Wis., and sister, Jackie (Don) Ager, of his native Muscatine, Iowa; and nieces, nephews, friends and neighbors.
Visitation and Mass were Wednesday at Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville. Memorials are preferred to the Burnsville Community Foundation (www.burnsvillefoundation.org), Foundation 191 (www.foundation191.org) or the Angel Foundation (www.mnangel.org).
John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.
