Howard S. Klepper
Engineer
Howard S. Klepper, a retired partner in a consulting engineering firm, died of smoke inhalation Saturday in a fire at his Sherwood Forest home. He was 88.
Mr. Klepper retired in 1968 as a partner in the firm of Rummel, Klepper and Kahl, where he specialized in the design of water and sewage treatment facilities. A registered professional engineer, he had become a partner in the firm then known as Sandlass Wieman & Associates in 1946.
Born in Baltimore, he was a 1925 graduate of Polytechnic Institute.
Before World War II, he worked as a civil engineer for the firm then known as Whitman, Requardt and Smith, and for other engineering, industrial and contracting firms.
During the war, he served as an officer in the Navy's construction battalions and attained the rank of lieutenant. His work ranged from construction at the Bainbridge Naval Training Station to the building of airfields in the South Pacific.
He had maintained a summer home in Anne Arundel County's Sherwood Forest community since 1955, and made it his full-time home about the time of his retirement.
Mr. Klepper had been a golfer until recent years, and in the 1950s enjoyed sailing his 40-foot sloop, Wild Goose, until it was heavily damaged in a storm on the bay.
His wife of more than 50 years, the former Emilie Eve Jewett, died in 1991, and a son, Robert S. Klepper, died July 16.
Services were to be held at 9 a.m. today at the John M. Taylor Funeral Home in Annapolis.
He is survived by a son, Richard C. Klepper of Sherwood Forest; and four grandsons.
W. Andrew Ward Sr.
Warehouse foreman
W. Andrew Ward Sr., a retired warehouse foreman at the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn, died Thursday at a nursing home in Sacramento, Calif., of complications from Parkinson's disease.
Mr. Ward, 83, had retired in 1982 after nearly 40 years at Social Security.
During World War II, he worked at Edgewood Arsenal and then served in the Navy from 1943 to 1945.
Born in Baltimore, he was a 1928 graduate of Douglass High School and, in 1949, was graduated from a jewelry and watchmaking school. He did watch-repair work as a sideline.
He was a member of St. James Episcopal Church for 30 years, and had been an adult leader in the Boy Scouts.
Services were scheduled for 10:30 a.m. today at St. James Episcopal Church, Lafayette and Arlington avenues.
Mr. Ward is survived by his wife of 59 years, the former Geneva Cecilia Richardson; a son, Air Force Maj. William A. Ward Jr. of Rocklin, Calif.; and four grandchildren.
Margaret R. Volpel
Bridge club director
Margaret R. Volpel, a former president of the Women's Bridge League of Maryland, died Sunday of heart failure at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
Mrs. Volpel, who was 86 and had lived in Govans and Towson before moving to Edenwald three years ago, continued to play bridge and bingo at the retirement community.
A life master of the American Contract Bridge League, she, with her husband, directed a duplicate bridge club at the Towson YMCA for 25 years.
Her husband, Marvin C. Volpel, professor emeritus of mathematics at Towson State University, died in 1987.
The former Margaret Roberts was a native of Wallaceburg, Ontario, and was reared in Canada and in Michigan. A graduate of Alma College, she earned a master's degree in English at the University of Michigan and taught at schools in that state as a young woman. She and her husband came to the Baltimore area in 1952.
Services were to be held at 1 p.m. today at the Govans Presbyterian Church, 5824 York Road.
She is survived by two daughters, Helen Blakey of Fallston and Kathryn Weinel of Timonium; three grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
Louis A. Deppenbrock, 76, a native of Baltimore and retired partner in a firm that distributed maps in Virginia and Maryland, died Saturday in Leesburg, Va., after a heart attack.
Mr. Deppenbrock, who lived in Leesburg, was a graduate of Baltimore City College. He worked for the First National Bank before serving as an Army officer in Italy during World War II. He had been a supervisor in the basement at Hutzler's downtown store before moving to Virginia in 1950.
Services were to be held at 10 a.m. today at the Colonial Funeral Home in Leesburg.
He is survived by his wife, the former Elsie Fincham; a daughter, Bonnie Lou Deppenbrock of Milford, Conn.; a son, Louis Allen Deppenbrock Jr. of Sterling, Va.; and a sister, Audrey D. Messner of Baltimore.