Still Serving: A WWII Veteran & Fairfax County Volunteer

Descended from homesteaders, Roy Kepferle, the oldest of five boys, grew up in Weld County, Colorado in the 1920s and 30s. Roy was a curious and adventurous lad who loved to take hikes around his home to explore the countryside and rocky terrain. He often returned home with rocks and would conduct experiments on them, bashing them open, or surprising his mother by heating them in the oven. However, his interest in geology would take a backseat to current events.

Roy was nearing his 15th birthday when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In high school, he learned about a federal program under which Navy and Army recruiters looked for highly qualified high school students to enlist them in the Reserves and provide them with specialized training. After receiving his high school diploma in 1944, Roy enlisted in the Army Reserve on June 4th, two days before D-Day. Assigned to study Japanese at Yale University, Roy experienced culture shock, tasting pizza for the first time in his life! He quipped that going to classes in military khakis made him feel like he was one step above Eagle Scout and one step below Army Private.

After Roy completed his language training at Yale and turned 18, he was inducted into active duty. He received further military training stateside and boarded a ship bound for Japan in late 1945. Once at his duty station, the Army put Roy to work as a typist to process the required paperwork for soldiers being sent home.

Discharged from the Army in November 1946, Roy returned to his first love – rocks. After utilizing the GI Bill to earn a B.A. in Geology from the University of Colorado in 1950, he took a job with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), embarking on a 32-year career as a field geologist. In addition to studying ancient sedimentary rocks, he worked at field offices across the country to search for uranium deposits and coal, oil and shale fields. He learned a great deal about geological mapping and wrote many technical publications.

While working in Montana in 1951, he met his future wife, Rhua, on a blind date at a Valentine’s Day party. They married in October of the same year. Rhua was an accomplished home economist and home demonstration agent who taught an array of skills from budgeting to nutrition. The couple had eight children, with six of them born between 1952 and 1962.

In the late 1950s, the growing Kepferle family moved to Tokyo and lived there for about 4 years. Roy was assigned to mapping projects and worked closely with Japanese geologists to compile geologic maps.

The family lived in Kentucky for 8 years during the 1960s and Roy earned his Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati in 1972. Dr. Kepferle was a member of the geology faculty at Eastern Kentucky University for a dozen years after retiring from USGS in 1982.

Roy and Rhua both valued service to community. They were active in the PTA, helping teachers and students throughout the 1960s. Roy also volunteered as a teacher of geology at a community college in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Later, he helped at-risk individuals through the Cincinnati Catholic Diocese.

In 1966, Roy volunteered to be part of a search party in a wooded area of Kentucky after a 3-year old boy was separated from his siblings while hiking on Easter Sunday. Roy used his mapping skills and expertise with the terrain to isolate an area where the child would have likely gone astray. After 18 hours, he found the toddler (mute from terror), clad in only a T-shirt and training pants, huddled under a tree. The child survived, and Roy received a life-saving certificate of merit from the Kentucky Department of Public Safety.

No stranger to relocating, Roy moved to the Greenspring retirement community in Springfield, Virginia in 2014. With four grown children in the D.C. area, he enjoys his family and a multitude of activities offered by Greenspring. He learned about Fairfax County’s Volunteer Solutions (VS), a program within the Fairfax Area Agency on Aging, from a fellow resident, Fred Griffin. When Fred invited him to help an older adult with grocery shopping, Roy signed up with VS and was approved as a volunteer at the age of 90. Sadly, Fred has passed away, but Roy continues to volunteer by driving another community member to the grocery store.

Roy feels tremendously grateful for the help he has received, both professionally and personally, throughout the years. This, coupled with his intrinsic value of service, inspires him to help others. Volunteer Solutions is pleased to have him on our team of dedicated volunteers.