Our Story

Bob was born at the family home on the farm in Cheltenham, Maryland, the youngest of eight children. His father died while he was still in high school. After a year at Strayer College he and brother Roland worked as civilian mechanics at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington, DC. In 1942 he registered in the WWII "Young Men's Draft" for service in the Army Air Corps. Bob married Betty Agnes Selby on August 9, 1943.

(a) Betty & Bob; (b) Robert, Betty, Bob, Karen; (c) Karen, Robert, Larry

After the war, Bob worked for a time with his brother Ells at his hardware store in Clinton, then was appointed postmaster of the Clinton facility. Meanwhile Betty operated a small department store they had purchased in Clinton. Together they raised five children there and at the Selby farm in nearby Cheltenham, where they moved after Bob's departure from the Post Office under less than optimal circumstances. His drinking problem led to loss of the store and home in Clinton, dominating family life for twenty years and resulting in a divorce from Betty in 1966.

Bob worked as a carpenter at the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the housing industry, later focusing on kitchens and baths as a contractor for Sears and then on his own. Through Alchoholics Anonymous he met and married Mary Davis in 1974. They purchased a home in Croom where they lived until their deaths. Mary died of a heart attach the day after Mothers Day in 2006 after picking a bouquet of peonies for her friends in bible study. Bob slowly declined as dementia took his memories. He spent his last two years at the Veterans Home in Charlotte Hall. Bob and Mary are buried together in the Veterans Cemetery in Cheltenham on a knoll overlooking the farm land where Bob was born and raised.

(a) Mary & Bob; (b) Bob on his boat; (c) Mary & Bob

Bob had a lifelong passion for the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and had a succession of boats that he either built or repaired. Like his father before him he was also an avid angler, spending countless hours on the Bay and it's tributaries catching stripers, bluefish, perch, and crabs. Whatever was caught was eaten.

Obituary:

Robert Russell Ripple “Bob”, age 91, formerly of Upper Marlboro, Clinton and Cheltenham Md, died of natural causes on August 10, 2014 at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home. He was born to Mary Catherine Smith and Ammon Cyril Ripple on July 21, 1923 in Cheltenham, Maryland and was the youngest of eight children. Bob lived in Prince Georges County all his life except for a stint in the Air Force during WWII. He graduated from Surrattsville High School in 1940 and married Betty A Selby in 1943. He joined the Air Force [Army Air Corps] and served until he was honorably discharged at the end of the war in 1945 when he returned to Cheltenham and started a family.

Bob was a Charter Member of the Lions Club of Clinton and a Past Commander of the American Legion Clinton Post 259 (1955-56). He worked for the Federal Government for the Architect of the Capitol, was a Justice of the Peace, obtained a real estate license and started his own construction company, Triple-R-Construction. He had a lifelong love of boats and owned a variety of power boats through the years.

Bob is survived by four children, Karen Louise, Robert Richard, Betty Ann and William Selby, five grandchildren, Carolyn Cher Ripple, Michael O’Driscoll Morgan, Kelly Marie Ripple and Julia Selby Ripple and two great grand children Matthew Finnegan McGrane and Michael Morgan. He is predeceased by his wife Mary Catherine, his son Lawrence David, his granddaughter Vickie Penrose Ripple, and great-granddaughter Cierra Marie Morgan.

Robert and Mary Ripple are buried together in the Veterans Cemetery, Cheltenham, Maryland.