- Date Of Birth: October 6, 1948
- Date Of Death: March 3, 2021
- State: Minnesota
Robert Arthur “Kip” Kippley, born in Le Mars, Iowa October 6, 1948 to Catherine (Allen) and Raymond Kippley, died March 3, 2021 in St. Paul, Minnesota after living with cancer for 15 years.
Raised in a tenant farming family, Kip knew poverty and hard work, but related stories from his early years with humor. He attended St. Mary’s University in Winona, and graduate school at the University of Minnesota. Kip was a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War, and his alternative service launched a career in mental health.
Kip devoted his professional and political life to keeping people otherwise marginalized at the center. He worked for 40 years as a psychologist doing day treatment for chronically mentally ill adults at Ramsey County Mental Health Center, and in retirement advocated fiercely and joyfully for racial, economic, and electoral justice with ISAIAH and other organizations.
Kip loved card games (bridge after retirement became a part time job), dancing, and mischief. Raised in a Catholic family, Kip charted his own spiritual course through a higher consciousness commune in the 1970s, raising a Jewish family, practicing Tai Chi Chih, and meditating with Blooming Heart Sangha. For the past 35 years, Danebod Family Camp was Kip’s primary community, with shared practice of dancing, song, crafts, and conversation. Kip was a Tapestry folkdancer for many years, an avid needleworker, a devoted grandfather, and loved camping on the North Shore. He is on the record as a public nuisance.
Kip is survived by his spouse Ellen Ogman; children Emma Kippley-Ogman (Benjamin Kamm) and Noah Kippley-Ogman (Elisabeth O’Connell); grandchildren Otto Ogman and Ida Kamm; siblings Mary Ellen Reusch (Stan), Betty Jo Bennett (Doug), Richard, Michael, Frank, Patsy Fronczak (Tom), Maureen and Allen; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Margie.
Kip’s family will be observing shiva (traditional Jewish week of mourning).
