Born May 9, 1886 in the Austrian-Italian border town of Pozen, "Jake" Obexer was an ambitious and restless young man who early abandoned his family's baking business for the more lucrative profession of waiter.

By the age of 20, Jake had sewn his culinary apprenticeship by working in the restaurants of the finest hotels of Austria, France and Switzerland.
In 1908 he moved to Boston then New York and San Francisco in 1809, continuing to work in such elegant restaurants as the Palace, the St. Francis and the Fairmont.

Here the fine cuisine included mountain trout, the primary source of which was a lake called Tahoe located high in the Sierra 250 miles to the east.

Endowed with an adventurous spirit, Obexer took advantage of an opportunity two years later to visit this pictorial paradise and his future was decided. "When I first saw the mountains, the sky and the waters of Tahoe," he recalled in an interview for the Tahoe Tattler in 1935, "I knew I was on my way to anchor here for a lifetime."

By 1920, a postwar proliferation of privately owned automobiles and boats was creating a booming demand for petroleum products, and several oil companies were eager to establish themselves in the new market. Jake initially allied himself with Union Oil Company, and then Standard Oil.
He started an oil delivery business in Tahoe City and eventually got a large boat to tow a barge loaded with barrels of fuel which he delivered around the lake

However, by the mid 1920s, Obexer had relocated his new family to Homewood, where he had arranged to purchase from the estate of Walter Scott Hobart, Jr.
He used his persuasive talents to convince Standard Oil to become a partner in the construction of a large crib breakwater and pier, behind which a marina would soon take shape.

In the late 40's Jakes son Herb, who had graduated from Stanford got involved in the business and his wife Edna became the Homewood postmistress.

Their son Jake II died tragically at the age of 26 in a boatyard accident.
Jake II and Penne's daughter Sarah now manages the operation.

Family Genealogy
Jake 1886
+Norma Williamson
  Herb 1921
  +Edna Bradley Obexer 1922-2007
    Jake II 1948 - 1975
    +Penne
      Sarah 
      +Keith Fields
        Jacob
        Kaleb