Robert George Dippel

Robert (Bob) George Dippel, retired CIA Procurement Executive and previous Gold River, CA resident died on October 8, 2020 with family nearby at the age of 94. Bob was born in 1926 in Mt. Oliver, PA, an independent borough surrounded by the city of Pittsburgh, PA. The third of four children of Albert J. and Marie Forest Dippel, Bob was educated in Pittsburgh's parochial and public schools. After graduating high school in 1944, Bob enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to a Navy Construction Battalion (SeaBees). Bob’s unit was on Okinawa preparing for the invasion of Japan when WWII ended. Returning to Pittsburgh he enrolled in Duquesne University and received his BA degree in 1952. He later earned a MBA degree from American University, Washington, D.C. From 1951 to 1954 Bob was employed in the traffic department of Mesta Machine Company, a manufacturer of heavy industrial equipment. Bob later began his government career in 1955 with the US Dept. of State Foreign Service and was assigned to the Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. It was in Bangkok that Bob met his future wife, and mother of his three children, Marian Gardes of Willmette, IL, Marion was also employed at the Embassy. In 1958, Bob was transferred to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA Agency). Outside of a three-year assignment in Okinawa, Japan, most of Bob’s twenty-eight years of service with the Agency were spent in the Washington, DC area. After returning from Okinawa in 1966, Bob became a procurement officer negotiating classified R & D contracts between the CIA and major defense and other commercial companies. Bob’s last five years with the Agency were spend managing CIA’s procurement system. In 1984, Bob spent his last two years with the Agency on assignment in Mountain View, California, right in the heart of Silicon Valley. Upon Bob’s retirement in 1986, Bob received the CIA Medal of Merit. Bob loved to travel and preferred the unusual. In 1956, Bob sailed on a Danish cargo ship from Bangkok to Singapore. From there he travelled up the Mayalan peninsula to Penang in Northern Malaya. A year later Bob and his wife Marion and a companion travelled by Jeep from Songkla, Thailand to Penang, Mayalaya over roads recently controlled by Mayalan guerillas. At that time, this area was still a British colony. On another trip Bob travelled from Calcutta, India to Darjeeling, within the Himalayan Mountains, along the India-Nepal boarder. That trip was aborted about an hour before reaching their destination due to a major landslide. While in Europe, Bob and Marion also motored up central Italy from the Capri/Naples region of Italy, north to Venice, Italy. Sadly, Bob lost his wife and traveling companion in 1982 after a long illness. After his retirement from the CIA, Bob continued his off-beat travels, once taking a 35-day voyage on an American freighter that called on the major Mediterranean ports. He also enjoyed taking long car rides across the United States. Estimating approximately ten trips, Bob preferred the less travelled roads such as Route 50, from Sacramento, CA to Ocean City, MD, and Route 2 from Detroit, MI to Seattle WA. It was on one of these trips, when he travelled to Hawaii to vacation with his brother and sister in-law where he met his wife Patricia (Pepper) Feeney in 1986. While this was just a chance meeting as Pepper was best friends with Bob’s sister in-law, their friendship grew, and they were then married in November of 1990. From then on, they built a life together in Gold River, CA. The travel bug continued as they travelled cross country several times to visit Bob’s kids on the east coast as well as European adventures. Together, Bob and Pepper remained active in the Cameron Park Newcomers Club, a social group where they developed lifelong friends and put on annually follies where Bob wrote and performed in skits. An avid softball player, Bob was a lifetime member of the Golden Seniors Softball Club, where he played ball well into his 80’s. Bob was also a member of the CIA Retirement Association and the VFW. Bob’s compassion and generosity embraced Pepper’s two daughters and allowed for Pepper and Bob to open their home to Pepper’s father Thomas Feeney for his remaining years. In 2018 Bob and Pepper moved to Cameron Park, CA where they lived in the Ponte Palmero retirement community. Even still, the travel bug never left. In the summer of 2020 Bob took a monthlong trip to spend time with his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren on the Gulf Shores of Alabama. Most recently Bob’s final trip was to Nacogdoches, Texas to be near his son and daughter in-law. Bob is preceded in death by his parents, Albert and Marie Dipple, Bob’s first wife and mother of his three children Marion Dippel, and his two brothers John (wife Alma) Dippel and Bill Dippel (wife Dorothy) and granddaughter Brittany Stadler. Bob leaves behind his wife Pepper Dippel, his younger sister Mary Mearns, Bob’s three children, Mary Hellen Colins (husband Denny), George Dippel (wife Julie Stadler), stepdaughters Kathy Moley Viand (husband Maurice) and Patricia (Patty) Dunn (husband Ken), grandchildren Robbie Dippel, Kelly Williams, Michael Kamees, Reilly Dunn, Chelsea Stadler Roach, Julie Stadler, and David Stadler, and great grandchildren Madison and Trey Williams, and Gabby, Micah and Ezra Roach. Bob also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews living across the country. Bob will be missed by all, but all are happy that Bob is free of his earthly constraints and dancing in the sky and drinking martinis.