Eldon Joseph Kloepfer

Eldon Joseph Kloepfer (May 23, 1920 - April 11, 1968) remembered by Nancy Kloepfer Hess:

My Dad, Eldon, was born in Logan, Utah to Margret Schaub and Fred Kloepfer on May 23, 1920. He was the second child of eleven. He lived in Logan all his life except for the time he served an LDS mission in Minnesota and the time he served in the US Navy during World War II where he was stationed in Chicago, Spokane, Washington D.C. and San Diego.

Dad was always interested in learning new things. In High School he belonged to the radio club. He received radar training in the Navy and was a HAM radio operator. He taught himself some Spanish and played the organ. He was an accomplished singer. He sang at funerals and weddings and always sang around the house. He was an airplane pilot. We always arrived at Ogden family reunions via plane. Dad would "wave" over Grandma and Grandpa's house as we went over Richfield and someone would be at the airport to pick us up when we arrived.

Dad and Mom met when Mom was in nurses training in Salt Lake at the LDS hospital. Although she was engaged to Howard at the time, she agreed to a date if he would take her to the Starlight Ball Room on top of the Hotel Utah. Within six weeks they were married. Mom traveled around the US following Dad while he was in the Navy until she was too pregnant with Dave to travel further. She told me that whenever she really needed money she would call Grandpa and ask him to sell the lamb she got for her wedding present. She figures that lamb must have either had several babies or been sold many times because she was always able to get enough money to make it.

Dad owned and operated his own pipeline construction company, Kloepfer Construction. He had jobs in towns all over the intermountain west. He and Mom had four children.

Dad had always wanted to retire and live in Mexico; maybe own a little hotel by a beach. When the construction company shut down for the winter we would jump in the plane and fly to costal towns in Mexico until it got a bit warmed in Cache Valley. It was also his dream to fly to South America. When we kids were old enough to leave alone, late in 1967, he and Mom accomplished that goal. It was the fulfillment of a major dream. Mom got her pilot's license so she could help fly and they took six weeks to fly from Logan down the west coast of Mexico, Central America, and South America as far as Southern Chile. Then they went to Argentina and across Brazil and up the east coast of South America; through the Caribbean Islands; to Miami and across the United States.

It was only a couple months after he returned from that trip that Dad's plane went down over the mountains near Rock Springs, Wyoming and he died.