William Louis Ripley (“Bill”) died September 5, 2006, at home in Lucerne.
Born Feb. 23, 1945, he was 61 years old. Bill was a writer and teacher with degrees from Harvard, University of Texas and University of Utah. His novel Prisoners was published in 1988 and in the same year he received a Dobie Paisano fellowship from the Texas Institute of Letters.
Following the death of his father in 1946, Bill was raised in Mason, Texas, by his mother Harriett Runge Ripley McVicker and his maternal grandparents, Roscoe and Ruth Runge. His mother then married Roy McVicker, a US Congressman from Denver, Colorado, and the family moved to Denver.
His grandparents, mother and stepfather all preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Marty Ball Ripley of Lucerne; son, Brandon Ripley and wife Iris Aguilar, and grandson, Leandro Ripley of Orange, California; and son, Jerome Ripley of Santa Barbara, California; sister, Theresa Ripley Holden and husband Michael Holden of Austin, Texas, niece Anne Holden of Portland, Oregon, and nephew William Holden of Austin, Texas; and sister Elizabeth “Lisa” McVicker and husband Craig Steinmetz of Denver, Colorado. Bill touched many lives with his great intellect, larger-than-life sense of humor and his passion for life and the people he knew and loved and who loved him.
He was a great man.
A celebration of his life will be held at his family”s ranch in Texas on October 28, 2006.
Please sign the guestbook at www.record-bee.com, click on obituaries.
(Published in the Lake County Record-Bee on Tuesday, September 19, 2006.)
