09/18/2016
Richard Earnest Leeper, 79, of Mt. Pleasant passed away on Sunday, September 18, 2016, at the Keosauqua Health Care Center, having suffered with Parkinson’s for many years.
Richard was born on June 14, 1937 at Harvey, Iowa, Marion County, the youngest child of William Robert “Bill” and Una Vivian (Argo) Leeper.
He attended K-12th grade in the Knoxville, Iowa public schools, graduating in 1956. His 1956 High School Football team was inducted into the Knoxville Hall of Fame.
Soon after graduating Richard enlisted in the Navy and served from January 7, 1957 until December 20, 1960. He was stationed for two years at Yokosuka, Japan. Upon returning to Knoxville he worked for Underground Dewatering and shingled houses, and attended college at both Simpson College in Indianola and NE Missouri at Kirksville for two years.
On December 24, 1965 he was united in marriage to Jean Hallowell at the Fairfield Friends Church in Fairfield. He started working for the United States Postal Service as a postal carrier in the winter of 1965, and was a sub working inside the office as well as a city carrier.
In 1978 he became a rural mail carrier. Richard retired as a rural carrier for the Knoxville Post Office on January 20, 2003, completing 42 years with the United States Postal Service. He retired from the National Guard in June of 1997. Each year as part of your National Guard physical your unit had to run. He could still outrun most of his fellow guard members, when he retired at the age of 60.
While in the National Guard he spent six weeks training in Germany. He liked to use his metal detector and completed two hand-stitched and hand quilted quilts, one for each of his daughters. He has won two first place awards for one of his quilts. In the spring of 1996 and fall of 1997 he enjoyed trips to the UK. He especially enjoyed the highlands of Scotland.
On March 8, 2003 Richard and his wife Jean moved to Mt. Pleasant. For a year he transported patients to appointments with RSVP and installing and maintaining “Life Line Units”. For ten years he worked during seed corn harvest for Pioneer, plus twice for longer periods of time. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2004.
Richard will be missed by his wife Jean, of Mt. Pleasant, two daughters and their families; Mary Jo (Kurt) Schultz and their triplets Connor, Nicole and Kristina of rural Pella, Michelle (Tim) Steinborn and their sons Tanner, Cade, Cooper and Gavin of St. Louis; his brother Paul (Wanda) Leeper of Altoona and many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents and five brothers, Bob, Charles, Walter, James and Roscoe.
Memorial Services will be held at 10:00 on Friday, September 30, 2016, at the Salem Friends Church in Salem, Iowa, with Rev. Jared Haley officiating. Interment will be in the Cedar Creek Friends Cemetery.
Memorials may be directed to the Cedar Creek Friends Cemetery or to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research in his memory.