Vernei Eugene JEPPSEN

JEPPSEN, SLEETER, COE, WOLF, VAUGHN, BARNGROVER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 8/13/2016 at 18:38:15

Vernei Eugene "Chris" Jeppsen

August 15, 1919 —--- July 31, 2016

Longtime Corvallis [Oregon] resident Chris Jeppsen died peacefully at home on July 31, 2016, of natural causes. He was two weeks short of his 97th birthday. Chris was born in Goldfield, Iowa, the third of seven children. He spent his preschool years in Goldfield, and then his family relocated to Barrington, Illinois. In 1937, he graduated from Barrington High School and in 1941 he received his bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Iowa State University.

During the early years of World War II, he was employed by a shipyard in Virginia as a structural draftsman, mainly concerned with new aircraft carriers. At the end of 1944, he received a medical discharge from the Navy, just before he was to report for active duty.

In 1948, Chris located his family to Corvallis. After serving for two years as an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Oregon State University, he established his own architectural practice. Among the many projects he and his partners completed over the next 45 years were, in Corvallis, Crescent Valley High School, Cheldelin Middle School, Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, and the Earth Sciences Complex at OSU and in Albany, Linn-Benton Community College and St. Mary’s Catholic Church. He was always enthusiastic about the love of his work as an architect. Among his civic duties were chairmanships for the State Capitol Planning Commission, Corvallis Planning Commission, Children’s Farm Home board and president of the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce.

Playing golf was his favorite recreational pastime. He maintained a single-digit handicap at the Corvallis Country Club, where he played for many years. Chris also enjoyed watercolor painting.

His first wife, Viola, died in January 1991 after a long illness. They were married for 48 years. In late 1992, he remarried his current wife, Gladys. They lived in Dallas for several years and in 2010 moved to a retirement home near Portland.

Chris is survived by his wife, Gladys; daughters Margie (Richard) Sleeter and Julie (Michael) Coe; stepdaughters Janet (Rich) Wolf and Nancy (Paul) Vaughn; stepson Ron Barngrover; brothers Ken and Don Jeppsen; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Chris was preceded in death by his wife, Viola; sons Jim and Steve; sisters Ellen, Esther and Evelyn; and brother, Harold. Remembrances may be made to a favorite charity.

A celebration of Chris’ life will be at 11:30 a.m. Oct. 1, 2016, at McHenry Funeral Home, 206 N.W. Fifth Ave., Corvallis, Oregon.

http://www.mchenryfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Chris-Vernei-Jeppsen/#!/Obituary