Encinitas: Our History and People

TRIBUTE TO
EDGAR ENGERT
G
Above: Edgar and Renate Engert.
Top, right: Edgar Engert and
Governor Arnold Schwarenegger at
the state capital.
Bottom: Family photograph taken of
the Engert family at Edgar and
Renate’s 50th wedding anniversary.
From the beginning, Edgar Engert, fondly
remembered by locals as “Mr. Encinitas,”
seemed to be planting the seeds for what
would become an amazing life which helped
shape the horticulture industry, his family and
his community.
Born in Kreimbach, Germany in 1936,
Engert immigrated to New York in 1958 to
escape the aftermath of World War II and
cultivate a new life for his wife Renate and
newborn daughter. He landed a job in Long
Island with a flower grower from his
hometown, and not only discovered his passion
for horticulture, but was also introduced to the
flower and family which would bring him and
his family to his beloved Encinitas.
Though Engert first met Paul Ecke, Jr. in a
New York greenhouse where Ecke had come to
check out different species of poinsettias, Engert
did not have a job when he took off for the west
coast. It did not, however, take the Eckes long to
snap him up and he spent the next 44 years
helping them turn the poinsettia into an
enduring Christmas tradition and a farming
empire where he worked until it was sold in
2012. Nine years later, on January 10, 2021,
Engert passed away unexpectedly from
complications of the novel coronavirus.
The Coast News hailed him as a family man
first and wonderful humanitarian second; a man
who gave his time to organizations such as the
YMCA, Y Service Club International, Encinitas
Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, the Del
Mar Fair Flower and Garden Show and San
Diego County Flower and Plant Association, the
California State Florist Association, San Diego
Botanical Gardens and the San Dieguito Heritage
Museum. He is credited with starting the
Encinitas’ Oktoberfest and Holiday Parade.
“I’m very sad he’s gone, but I am also
surprised because he never seemed to stop,”
Paul Ecke III said in the news article. “He
never seemed to sleep; he was always working,
spending time with his family and helping
with charities.”
“He lit up any room he entered, never met a
stranger, and was always concerned about the
well-being of his family and friends,” his family
wrote in his obituary, adding that he always
encouraged them to reach for the stars—just
like he always did.
1 8 0 F E N C I N I T A S - O u r H i s t o r y a n d P e o p l e