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Note: Louis "Lou" my father, was born in the Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, which is located just outside of Boston, on April 28, 1923.
He relates that his first recollection of his "early years" was in Beverly, Massachusetts about 1927, when the family was living on Pond Street, and he was helping his older sister, Harriet push her doll-baby carriage along the sidewalk in front of their rental house.
About a year later when they had moved to Essex Street in Beverly, he remembered standing along side his dad, holding his hand, and they were looking across the street to a large farm house setting back beyond a large field. He asked his father, (Harry Lipphardt): "What is that"? His dad replied: "That is the 'poor farm', and we don't want to waste food or we could wind up there". Dad said that he never forgot those words.
Another recollection he had about the same period, had him standing with his dad and sister, Harriet, each holding one of their dad's hands, looking up at a window of the Faulkner Hospital (in Jamaica Plain), waving to his mother, who was there recovering from a caesarian-section delivery of his brother Donald, and his mother waving back at them.
In 1929, (he even remembered that it was about noon), just after they had moved into their new home at 15 Elmwood Road, in Marblehead Massachusetts, (this was a beautiful brand-new large three-story white Colonial home). While standing in front of the house, looking back at it and saying to himself how lucky he was to be able to live in such a fine home.
He grew up (1929-1941) at this home. The home had lots of grass, both front and back to cut, which was one of his many "chores" to do as a youngster there. At about age 12, he joined the local Boy Scout troop, and after attending scout camp three summers in a row, he attained the rank of "Eagle Scout", and retired from scouts with 21 Merit Badges....his first major achievement that he was proud of.
Also, about this age, he joined the "Clifton Drum & Bugle Corps". He started out playing the bugle, but his mother got tired of listening to him practice, frequently hitting "sour" notes, so his dad bought him a "Ludwig" snare drum, about half as big as he was. For a couple of years, he marched on holidays through the streets of Marblehead. He was always glad to see the end of the parade, due to the weight of the drum. At home, to keep the noise level down, his dad made him practice hitting on a hockey puck instead of the drum! Even so, the noise would ricochet through the house.
At about age 6, he attended Glover Elementary School in Clifton, MA., and graduated from Marblehead High School in June, 1941. After high school, he attended the University of Maine at Orono for 1 1/2 years, studying mechanical engineering. He entered the university in 1941 as a freshman. He left school in February, 1943, to join the Army Air Corps. He later returned to the University in 1946, and received his degree in June 1948.
In 1943, he married my mother, (Yvonne Cunningham) while he was taking pre-flight training at Maxwell Field Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. He graduated from Advance Single-Engine Flight School at Selma Field, Alabama, in 1944, as a 2nd Lieutenant, Pilot. He then became an instructor at Basic Flying School in 1944, at Greenwood Army Air Corps Base in Greenwood, Mississippi. Dad said that he could never understand after graduation from his flight training why he was made an instructor-pilot, because like all graduates, he was anxious to be assigned to a fighter squadron of P-51's, P-47's or P-38's and "get with it" to shoot down Germans or Japs. But years later, he recalled that he would really learn how to fly if he had to teach others. He taught about 25 students and only "washed out" two or three, "they just couldn't cut it". Dad was 21, and was called "the old man". His students were all of 19 and 20 years old! He stated that he was very fortunate to survive those ten months in early 1944. He was assigned to B-17 transition training at Lockbourne Air Base in Columbus, Ohio. About 4 months later, (with about 100 hours in the left seat) he graduated and was assigned to the B-29 transition training at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, and Roswell Air Base in New Mexico. He graduated with his flight engineer and co-pilot in August, 1945. A few days later, the two big atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, and all B-29's were grounded to save fuel. Within a month, dad was given the choice to "stay in" or "get out". He made the decision to get out, and was honorably discharged in October, 1945.
He then returned to college at the University of Maine to continue his studies, and got his degree in Mechanical Engineering. He, with his wife, and son, Ed, lived in Bangor, Maine.
Dad started back at classes, second semester, sophomore year. It was February 1946, and that same year, I came into the picture. I was born that November at the Eastern Maine General Hospital in Bangor, Maine.
Dad joined the Maine Air National Guard in 1947, (he said: "to make a few extra bucks"), and flew brand new P-47's, single engine fighters with the 132nd Fighter Squadron.
After graduation from the University of Maine, he accepted a position with the Allis-Chalmers Company, (manufacturer of farm, electric utilities, heavy construction, and industrial products) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and moved to Hales Corners, WI. In the Fall of 1949, the family moved to Marblehead, Massachusetts and rented a home on Peach's Point. In 1950, they moved to "The Neck" as it was called (a purchased peninsula on Marblehead Harbor).
It might have been the cold winters, the "Call of the West", or the fact that dad's mother and other relatives had already moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, that about July, 1953, he convinced Allis-Chalmers to send him "out west" to their Phoenix office. His new sales territory now consisted of states, not just cities....namely, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. Years later, (1968) he earned the name "Mister Allis-Chalmers" for being the company's top sales engineer, and his picture and story were shown on the front page of the company's quarterly magazine, "The Scope".
His customers were the major copper producers of the southwest, to whom he sold large primary gyratory crushers, large cone crushers, vibrating screens, rod and ball mills, all with drive motors and control. The copper industry was expanding rapidly in the late fifties, sixties, and early seventies. Business was excellent!
Our first home in Arizona was on Berneil Drive (Route 2, Box 271-B), in Scottsdale. It didn't take long before we had five horses on a 5-acre ranch about six miles north of town. At that time it was a very western town. Scottsdale Road was a two-lane road that normally had sheep being herded on it. Dad became very involved as a volunteer with the Scottsdale Mounted Sheriff's Posse in 1954. He became a Lieutenant in 1955, Captain in 1957, and the President in 1959. He left the assignment only because we had moved to Tucson, Arizona, in 1961, when he was transferred by Allis-Chalmers to be manager of the new office.
Dad and my mother's marriage was dissolved after the move to Tucson; he later married my step-mother, Janice ("Jan") in December, 1966, in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a reception at the home of dad's cousin, Nancy (Mortensen) and her husband, Freeman Waddell, who have a home in Las Vegas. Also attending were Nancy's parents, and dad's "Auntie Jeanette" and Uncle Ove Mortensen from Cape Cod, MA. Dad's mother, Darthea ("Nana") Tuttle, and his step-father Charles ("GaGa") Tuttle, from Santa Barbara, California, attended also.
Dad retired from Allis-Chalmers after 32 years with the company in 1980, and he and Jan moved to Sedona, Arizona in March of that year, and still reside there. (Sedona is an extremely beautiful mountain city in northern Arizona, about 28 miles south of Flagstaff). Dad and Jan will celebrate their 35th anniversary in December of 2001.
A very strange phenomenon should be mentioned here, since we are writing about a man who has not lived in Massachusetts or Maine in over 48 years, yet he still has a New England accent. How is that possible? The children believe that he practices the accent to keep it distinct. Dad states that he is proud of his "Yankee" upbringing.
Until we began to do research for this family tree project, we had not known that we were not the first Lipphardt's to visit Scottsdale. As it turned out, two of Karl David Ludwig Lipphardt's sons had visited Scottsdale about 1890 (see Herman and William).
Dad died suddenly on September 02, 2002. He had a beautiful service with military honors. He is entombed in the Serenity Mausoleum, Green Acres Memorial Gardens (401 North Hayden Road in Scottsdale, Arizona.
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