John Irving Maurer M.D, retired psychiatrist and resident of Murphy’s, CA peacefully passed away in his sleep on June 21, 2023 at the age of 88.
Dr. Maurer was born to Kathryn Fischer Maurer and Irving John Maurer of Madison, Wisconsin and attended the University of Wisconsin where he played baritone horn in the band which took him to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
This trip inspired him to transfer to Stanford University, where he received his Doctorate.
His love of golf made him take notice of Stanford team golfer and nursing student Linda Collins Maurer (March 10, 1939 – October 13, 2004) who he quickly married and started his family of three children.
He served in the military as a psychiatrist in New York, monitoring servicemen for mental health.
While working as a resident psychiatrist at Stanford he worked shifts during The Summer of Love at the Haight-Ashbury Clinic in San Francisco, helping to establish the protocols used to help LSD overdose victims “come down.” He co-wrote “Management of ‘Bad Trips’ in an Evolving Drug Scene” which was published in the Journal of American Medical Association in 1970.
He became the Director of the Mental Health Center at Emmanuel Hospital in Turlock, California and for many years was a board member of the Medic-Alert Foundation, for which his wife Linda was the first member and her parents the founders.
Dr. Maurer had a private practice in Turlock until semi-retirement and he continued diplomatic consultations to many organizations throughout central California, and mentorship of young psychiatrists on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Arizona.
John loved supporting the visual arts, and played the euphonium and baritone horn in many community bands.
He was an avid local wine enthusiast in Calaveras County and played cribbage almost daily.
In 2022, he was very proud that he was dealt the “perfect hand” of all 5’s and a Jack of spades, which has the odds of only 1 in 216,580!
He recently returned from a road trip to the Canyon de Chelley, Grand Canyon, and Joshua Tree National Parks for which he was a proud lifetime member.
He is survived by his wife of 24 years Oma Gaye Dillehay Maurer, his daughters Kathryn “Kassie” Maurer and Karen “Karry” M. Walker, his grandsons Rudy Fierro and Max Fierro, his step-son Rick Minyard, and step grand-daughter Cierra Naomi Jones. His only son, Paul Collins Maurer passed away in 2018.
Please contact kassiemaurer@gmail.com for information about his memorial service on July 13, 2023. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Alzheimer’s Association of Sacramento at https://www.alz.org/norcal.
