Richard Wise "Dick" Pippenger
Marriages
Katharine C. Girndt - August 10, 1963
Married in Rapid City, SD
Obituaries
The Daily Sentinel page 6A - September 22, 2022
Richard(Dick) Pippenger
passed away on Sunday,
September 18, 2022 at his
home in Grand Junction
Colorado.
Dick was born on July
12, 1935 in Lafayette, IN
to Gladys (Wise) and Dr. Wayne G. Pippenger. He grew
up in the little farm town of Brook, IN and graduated
high school from Culver Military Academy in 1953.
He married Katharine C. Girndt on August 10, 1963 in
Rapid City, SD in the Knollwood Heights EUB church
which Dick helped build. Katharine died on August 18,
2012 after a marriage of 49 years to Dick.
After serving in the Army, Dick was employed by
the Corps of Engineers overseeing construction of
Runways, Titan & Minuteman missile silos in Michigan,
South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska & Colorado. He
then served as the Chief of Maintenance and Fire Chief
for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Crow Indiana
Reservation in Montana. Later he became the Area
Safety Manager for 13 reservations in the Dakotas and
Nebraska where he was responsible for training of fire
fighters and procurement of fire apparatus in addition to
managing the safety program.
As a State Fire Service Instructor, he taught at
numerous district and State fire schools in South Dakota
& New Mexico. In 1971 he was invited to help write
training manuals with the International Fire Service
Training Association at Oklahoma State University. He
served on or chaired 11 manual committees. In 2006
he took emeritus status. Dick served as the Regional
Safety Engineer for the US Fish and Wildlife Service
in Boston, MA, the National Park Service in Santa
Fe, NM, the US Bureau of Reclamation in Boise, ID
and finished the last 6 years of his federal career in
Yellowstone National Park as Fire Chief, Fire Marshal
and Asst. Regional Safety Manager for the Park Service.
He then served as the Director of the Industrial Hygiene
Bureau, State of Indiana OSHA Compliance.
Kathy and Dick had already picked Grand Junction
as a retirement location where they moved in the fall
of 1991. Not content with retirement Dick worked as
Technical Program Administrator, Safety and Fire
Protection and as a Senior Safety Engineer on the
UMTRA project. During his career he was a member of
the Crow Agency - Montana, Cole-Collister -Idaho, and
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming fire departments.
Dick became the Fire Marshal for the Lower Valley Fire
District in 1999 and retired June 2022. Dick was very
active in Redlands United Methodist Church where he
served in various positions.
He is survived by his son, Robert W. Pippenger (Diane
Itterman) of Brookings, SD and grandchildren,;Seth,
Faith and Eli Pippenger. Brothers; William W.
Pippenger (Eleanor) of Salem, OR and Roger L. (Irene)
Pippenger of Indianapolis, IN along with many nieces
and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents and
brother C.E. Pippenger.
A memorial service will be held at 10:00am on
Saturday, September 24, 2022 at the Redlands United
Methodist Church in Grand Junction, CO. In lieu of
flowers, memorials can be made to Hospice & Palliative
Care of Western Colorado or the James Pulsipher
Regional Cancer Center. The service may be watched
on the Redlands UMC Grand Junction Colorado
YouTube channel.
