Obituary of Maynard Morris Kepler Jr.

OBITUARY OF Maynard Morris Kepler Jr. Maynard Morris Kepler Jr. was born on October 18, 1934 in Arizona to Maynard Mack Kepler and Theresa Wynne Kepler. Maynard was the second oldest of nine children: Jimmy, Renard,Sonja, Duane, Zackey, Stephen, Andy, and Tim. Starting as a child Maynard was always an overachiever. In 1944 during World War II when he was 10 years old he shined sailor’s shoes and he carried luggage on the corner of Maine and 6th street in LA, in order to earn extra money. During the summer Maynard picked apricots and chopped cotton on his Uncle John’s farm in Dos Palos California. All of the money that he earned, his mother made him save for clothes and books for school. After Maynard graduated from highschool, at the age of 18 he worked at a Naval Ship Yard in San Francisco to help support his family when his father went back to college.After a year of working, Maynard attended college at Cal Poly San, Louis Obisbo. While he was in college, he was on the football team. He was a defensive tackle. While he attended college, he also worked many jobs including picking grapes on a farm to earn extra money. He was the first Afro-American that earned an electric engineering degree at Cal Poly. After he graduated from college, some of the companies Maynard worked at were Lockheed, Hughes Aircraft, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory & Raytheon. He also had several consulting jobs where he worked on electronics for missiles, satellites & the EPCOT Center in Disney World. He married in 1962 and had 4 children. Maynard taught his sons at a young age how to work on electric circuits. He had them solder components on a homemade computer in the 1970s, but recently confessed he did not use those circuit boards.After Maynard retired in 2000, he continued working, he was a jack of all trades. He continued working on Electronic consultant jobs. He tore down the dilapidated garage that his house came with, and rebuilt a new two story garage by himself. The City Inspector said, “It would be the only standing structure in the neighborhood after a major earthquake”. A few feet from the garage, he made a beautiful irrigated vegetable garden. He also irrigated a native plant garden at Millikan High School, for his granddaughter’s senior project. He remodeled his daughter’s kitchen, by removing an old outdated electric oven and replacing it with a modern gas oven. During his leisure time he watched football games, and he went to salsa dances with his friends in the evenings.He also spent time going to Philharmonic concerts and he loved going to and eating out at restaurants. After he ate at the restaurants Maynard always made jokes. When the waiters came to the table to collect the payment Maynard would say, “Oh do you want money?” As Maynard left the restaurants he would also joke with other customers entering the restaurant. Maynard would say, “ Turn back around, I ate all of the food”. Then Maynard would laugh and make everyone else laugh. Maynard was a very cheerful, enjoyable, and optimistic person. Maynard leaves behind four children: Maynard Kepler III,Monique Kepler, Johannes Kepler, and Christian Kepler, as well as two grandchildren Isis Troy and Ranani Ferguson, three brothers; Duane, Stephen, and Tim, several nieces and nephews, and numerous other relatives and friends. Acknowledgements:The family would like to express our sincere appreciation for your thoughtfulness,yourcondolences and expressions of love and support during this time of bereavement. Poem You held my hand when I was small You caught me when I fell, The hero of my childhood And of latter years as well, Every time I think of youMy heart just fills with pride, And though I’ll always miss you, Dad,I know you’re by my side, In laughter and in sorrow In sunshine and in rain, I know you’re watching over me Until we meet again, Poet unknown