Richard F. Jeppesen
Born June 9, 1942 in Denver to Elrey and Nadine Jeppesen. He spent every summer working on his grandfathers farm in Iowa. His love of farming started there and never left him.
Richard was a gymnast and won all city and all State honors in his junior and senior year. He went on to flying and became an airline pilot. He was the ALPA Air Safety Committee chairman for his airline and investigated several air carrier accidents. Later he became chairman of the Professional Standards Committee.
He flew chase for filming specials for NBC, CBS, ABC with the helicopter he owned. He was given the Flight Safety Heroism award for performing a helicopter rescue in a deep canyon on Lake Powell.
He graduated with honors from Arizona State University. He played football for them in 1970 while on a leave of absence from the airline. He attended law school for two semesters until he figured out what lawyers really do. He founded JDI, Inc. which was a construction/development company. JDI, Inc. built several large apartment buildings in the Phoenix area. JDI, also developed Oakwood Hills, a high end development in the Phoenix valley. He was proud of that project. He also built, by hand, his home at one Oakwood Hills Dr. A twenty thousand square foot home.
He founded Jeppesen VisionQuest, that gave free eye exams and free, new, glasses for all kids in Florida that could not see clear enough to read.
He created Fort Jeppesen Cattle Company on 245 acres close to Leesburg, Fl. He raised registered Angus and at one time set the record for the highest valued female in the breed at $500,000 dollars.
Richard, in his later years, took many courses to study the art of writing. He has four books published.
He was married for thirty-two years and raised five kids. He put the ranch he lives on in a conservation easement so it could never be turned into cookie cutter homes. It will always stay the beautiful ranch that he loved. Upon his death, a foundation will be formed that will give aviation scholarships to those that want to make aviation their career. He loved his kids, his dogs, the wild things, and his cows. He will miss watchin’ the sun comin’ up, burning off the morning mist while he did herd check and sipped coffee. His favorite time of year was fall. College football and calving season.