Services set for Diedrich coffee founder

--Daily Pilot staff

Memorial services for coffee mogul and Costa Mesa resident Carl

Diedrich will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Waldorf School of Orange

County.

Diedrich, who died July 31 at his Costa Mesa home from complications

of Parkinson’s disease, was 86.

The native of Magdeburg, Germany, decided to continue the coffee

lineage of his wife, Inga Zeitz, and founded Diedrich Coffee in a

single-car garage on South Bristol Street in Costa Mesa. Her family

operated a coffee, tea and cocoa business.

An engineer by trade, Diedrich worked as a lecturer and marine

biologist before deciding to pursue the coffee business.

The Diedrich family moved to Antigua, Guatemala, where he and several

partners bought a 45-acre coffee plantation. It was there that Diedrich

raised his five sons, teaching them about the art of fine coffee

roasting. In 1972, Diedrich wanted to import his premium beans to the

United States, so he and his wife drove to Southern California to look

for a place to settle.

Scorching heat led the couple to drive north on Pacific Coast Highway

instead of on the freeway to stay cooler. They stopped for gas in Corona

del Mar, where a friendly resident told them the virtues of coastal

living.

The man was so persuasive that Diedrich took the man’s advice and set

up the Diedrich homestead in Costa Mesa. That friendly resident turned

out to be then-mayor of Newport Beach Donald McInnis.

The Waldorf School of Orange County is at 2350 Canyon Drive, Costa

Mesa.