Charles William "Bill" Rippon (1945-2019)

Charles William “Bill” Rippon, 73, of Hershey attended Saint Joan of Arc Grade School, Hershey High School, and Randolph-Macon College near Richmond. He was an Altar Boy as a youth and young adult - highly committed to his Faith, and involved in his Church, throughout life. For many years, he attended Mass daily.
He was a star athlete, particularly as a football quarterback in high school and college, well-known for his “Rosie’s Roll-out” move off the center. He would take a snap and roll right or left; if the defense dropped back into the flat, he would run the ball with great speed (he was a sprinter in track & field too).
The football play was named for his mother Rose Reese Rippon, who baked outrageously tasty sticky buns (known as “Rosie’s Rolls”) in two pizza ovens that would be sold all around the Hershey area on Saturday mornings.  Bill’s Class of 1963 Football Team won the Capital Area Championship. Both that play and his mother’s sticky buns are part of Baby-Boomer Hershey Lore to this day.
Many consistently called Bill “smart and funny”. He was. Unlike most of us, he could not only remember a good joke, but also repeat it better than the person who first shared it with him. An Anglo-Irish American with roots in Yorkshire and County Mayo, he was a hoot around a bar, informed on current affairs and able to deflate egos with wit and humor, while informing and subtlety correcting, keeping the gang together.
His smarts and wits made him a great salesman, like his father Donald. Bill worked for IBM (where he managed the account of Main Campus, Penn State University, which bought a lot of Selectric typewriters, the first “smart” typewriters) and Unisys, among other early tech companies. In his retirement Bill lived with his Mother Rose providing loving companionship for her in her later years.
Music was his passion. He played the guitar and was the lead singer in various bands. In high school it was a folk group named The Metropolitans and in college he started a “rock n roll” band name The Aftermath, that played early Rolling Stones songs.  The Aftermath toured much of the East Coast playing in nightclubs.
Figure skating was also important to Bill going back to his teen years, when he formed meaningful and lasting relationships with the owners and skaters of Camp Carroll in Hershey and his best friend Tommy Litz, who became the US Men’s Figure Skating Champion in 1963.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act took effect as Bill was in college in the segregated south. His college took in its first African American student and chose Bill to be his roommate. Bill embraced his new roommate and because of it, withstood threats, damage to his dorm room, and ridiculing from other students on campus. Nonetheless, he did not abandon his beliefs or his love for all mankind.
Bill’s heart was always in the right place, even if, like each of us, his actions sometimes didn’t work out. It was a deep, good heart that beat strong even as he battled lung cancer in the end. It was his lungs that gave out, not his heart. In his immobility at the end in assisted living, he watched every Phillies game on TV, a team that always had a piece of his heart.
Bill was preceded in death by his Father- Donald Joseph Rippon and his Mother Rose Reese Rippon. He is survived by two daughters Megan E Rippon and Ellen E Hoffman, two grandchildren Wyatte Lyons and Knox Lyons. Also surviving are his six siblings: H. James Rippon, Thomas R. Rippon, Rosemarie Rippon Prete, Timothy J. Rippon, Rebecca R. Hilgers (Roland) and David J. Rippon, and 12 nieces and nephews.
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:30am on Friday August 30th in the St. Joan of Arc Roman Catholic Church, 359 West  Areba Avenue ,Hershey. Interment will be private in the Hershey Cemetery. Visitation will be at a reception following the Mass.
In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the memorial fund at St. Joan of Arc Church.