Jerry Klopper died Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, He was 78 years old. He fell down a flight of stairs; the impact broke his neck. The irony is not lost on his family and friends: after all the difficulties he had faced, absorbed, and then climbed up and over, it was an actual set of stairs that killed him.
Husband, father, brother, uncle, friend: Jerry embraced a life filled with abundant joy that was pure and abundant tragedy that seemed cruel to everyone but Jerry. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}Throughout these challenges, his positive attitude was seasoned with love, kindness, and a fine sense of humor that was never mean-spirited.
Gerald Irvin Klopper was born July 5, 1937, in Kansas City, Missouri. As he told the story, his mother Leah claimed the doctor had promised her a girl and asked that the new son, her second, be sent back, like an undercooked dinner entree. After graduating from Paseo High School, Jerry served in the U.S. Army, delivered mail for the U.S. Postal Service, and sold aluminum siding. He worked with his brother Harold at Klopper Realty Company for some 30 years, followed by many years in the service department of the Armstrong, Teasdale law firm.
He married Susan Tick on Feb. 10, 1963, in Paducah, Kentucky, (her hometown) at the Irvin Cobb Hotel. Jerry and Susan’s strong love for one another provided shelter and solace after the deaths of their two children, and that same love opened their hearts and lives to the subsequent adoption of two girls. “In the end,” Jerry often said, “all that matters is family.”
Health issues challenged Jerry throughout his adult life, yet he was not plagued by them. Though he faced many hurdles — including: a collapsed lung, gallstone and kidney stone trouble, diabetes, heart bypass surgery, recurring bladder cancer, two broken clavicles, and a minor stroke — he displayed neither self-pity nor a sense of “Why me?” One of his oft-quoted sayings was, “Man plans. God laughs.” He saw the folly of expectations and asking for mercy, no matter how small. That informed his favorite quotation: “Every day is a good day. It’s just that some are better than others.”
Menorah Medical Center liked Jerry — maybe for all the billable insurance his illnesses brought them over the years, and definitely for his volunteer work at its help desk, where he gave comfort and reassurance with his good-natured honesty, directness and wit. He walked the 13.5-mile Hospital Hill Run — in 2014, at age 76 — because it was a race he knew he could walk and complete. Just another staircase to climb.
Jerry Klopper was a hero to his family. So, too, did he love and revere his brother, Harold. They had a way of speaking to one another — a different tone, somehow softer — that family and friends admired, envied and respected of these two brothers who shared such a deep, abiding love.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Manuel and Leah Klopper, and his daughters Peri and Stephanie.
In addition to wife Susan and brother Harold and sister-in-law Natalie, of the many who mourn his loss and honor his memory: his daughter Janice Bleich, her husband Ken, their daughter Courtney (Castle Rock, Colorado) and their daughter Erin (Overland Park); his daughter Nancy Johnson and her son Stephen (Prairie Village); his niece Audrey Klopper (McLouth, Kansas); and his nephew Hal Klopper (Brooklyn, New York).
The funeral service was held Sunday, Sept. 13, 2015, at Louis Memorial Chapel. Burial followed at Mount Carmel Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations in honor of Jerry may be made to a charity of the donor’s choice.
Condolences may be shared at www.louismemorialchapel.com.
Arrangements by The Louis Memorial Chapel, 816-361-5211.{/mprestriction}