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On Saturday, Dec 23, Roland C. Ripple died of cancer in Southern Maryland Hospital Center, where he had been taken just four hours earlier from his home in Upper Marlboro.

Mr. Ripple was the president of Ripple's Used Auto Parts, which he operated with the assistance of his five sons. He served in the Navy during World War II, and founded his business in 1945. His father, Ammon S., had established a branch of the S.A. Ripple and Bros. Broom Factory of Baltimore, first at Cheltenham School for Boys (then the House of Reformation), later building a large plant on his homeplace in Cheltenham.

In 1940 he married Cecilia E. Wyvill, whose father, Samuel A. Wyvill, was then editor of the Enquirer-Gazette. They reared a large family of five sons and five daughters. In 1965, they also bought and built, with the help of their family, a lovely summer home on the Tred Avon River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Just prior to his death, Mr. Ripple had completed the hull of his 93-foot fishing boat which he had hoped to finish the next summer.

His quick smile and ready wit, his kind, gentle manner belied his firm, inner strength and determination. He was well-liked by all who had personal or business relations with him.

Besides his wife, he is survived by his children, Barbara Roney, Susan Payne, Marcia Chaney, John, Christopher and Stephen of Upper Marlboro, Joseph of Lothian, Clare Beach of Crofton, Gerard of Bowie and Mary Gainer of Baden, Maryland. There are seventeen grandchildren.

Also surviving are his brothers and sisters, J. Ellsworth and J. Franklin of Clinton, Grace Duvall, M. Catherine Garner and Robert R. of Upper Marlboro, Mildred Lyons, of Severna Park and Doris Smoot, of Brandywine, Maryland.

Services for Mr. Ripple were held from the Richard A. Coleman Funeral Home on Wednesday, Dec. 27, with the mass of Christian Burial being celebrated by five priests in St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic Church in Upper Marlboro. Organist was his niece, Sarah W. Crump, with burial in Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton. (Obituary)

(a) Roland Ripple and his mother (b) Cele with Sue and Barb (c) Roland, Cele, Barb, Joe, Sue

Roland and Cele are buried together in Resurrection Cemetery, Clinton, Maryland.