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Guy Johnson posted a condolence
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
I work at Mason General hospital Shelton Wash. For many years I got to know Karl well. We often had evening meal together at the local restaurant. He was a great surgeon also a great friend. He will be missed My sympathy and condolences go to the family. Guy & Darlene Johnson
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Linda Beck posted a condolence
Thursday, August 13, 2020
Just found out of Karl's passing.... There were never so special & closer brothers than Karl & Fred or Don & Bud.
Now they are together again and Heaven will never be the same!
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Michael and Sande lit a candle
Monday, August 10, 2020
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"Uncle" Karl was a great friend and fellow explorer for almost 50 years of my life and my wife's Sandra. The best way to describe him is in a response he gave me, asking me to join him on a trip to Borneo. "Karl," I said, "tourists die there all the time." "Michael," he responded, "what's the purpose of going anywhere if you're sure you'll come back alive?" We will miss him so much.
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Marti Walker uploaded photo(s)
Sunday, April 5, 2020
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This was taken on a camping trip with Karl in 1990. The tide went out and we had to drag the Alfreda E. Newman quite a ways through the mudflats.
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Sheila Fay posted a condolence
Friday, April 3, 2020
A truly unique individual.......he was one of the few to immediately welcome me to Olympia in 1980 when I arrived as the first woman surgeon. It was indeed a privilege to have known him and worked with him...he was indeed one of a kind…..I remember the day he showed up to my daughter's vocal recital unannounced....when I asked him how he even knew about it......he told me he kept track of things in town and thought it might be interesting!!!! Such a dear and special soul......rest in peace.....
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Rolf Eriksen posted a condolence
Monday, March 30, 2020
Karl Ruppert
March 4th, 2020 has marked the passing of one of the most extraordinary men I have ever come to know. Karl Ruppert’s profession was surgery and general practice of medicine, but his life reflected a vast litany of interests, activities and passions. Already a seasoned, veteran doctor arriving from SE Asia in 1968, he took over a practice for an Olympia doctor who wanted some time off. Being a tall, affable, gregarious, competent, intuitive, and a infectiously likable soul, the practice developed, flourished and he never looked back. His bedside manner was more than a special talent, but I believe more healing than assorted treatments. He would go the extra mile to save a patient who others had given up on, and, as one nurse I know who worked with him said: “His ostomies were a cut above many of his colleagues”. He was an expert with then a new device, the gastroscope with which he could diagnose and repair many gastric maladies. He would flippantly describe “stapling” together various intestines, etc. which generally meant he saved a life. One time I waited 14 hours while he tirelessly worked to save the life of a 16 year old girl who had been severely injured in an auto crash. She died in his arms, he sobbed uncontrollably. From time to time he would talk about the wounded he pieced together in S.E. Asia and vividly described being on the top of a hotel watching people on the street of Saigon being strafed by the Viet Cong.
I met Karl Ruppert in the fall of 1973 as I had moved with my wife to the West Side of Olympia. Having the incredible good fortune to have moved to the next door property I very shortly kept hearing a lot of activity, spirited voices, music and a wafting litany of incredible smells of cooking food. Over the top of all this din was a booming, friendly voice that piqued my curiosity. After wandering over to satisfy my curiosity, I was welcomed, fed, and regaled as if I had been there for a lifetime. Little did I know that I had just met one of the most remarkable people of my life and the start of a friendship that has spanned over 47 years of , camaraderie, adventures, travel, near death experiences, and remarkable survival.
Dr. Ruppert, Rupe, as we knew him, loved life. He loved people of all kinds. He loved the water and diving, he loved being on the water, he loved very hot almost healthy food, he passionately loved to travel and above all to entertain and tell stories. And we told them by the dozens, sometimes more than once, and even ad nauseum or 600 times. Karl perfected a substance named “Marva’s Ketchup” (after Marva, a neighbor who seemed to have a pallet of steel) which, if taken in the least amount would be tantamount to being at the center of an incendiary bomb requiring a vast amount of cold beer to put the fire in your mouth out.
Karl Ruppert’s home, dubbed the “Rooster Inn” was open to anyone, full of an eclectic collection of geegaws from all over the world, musical instruments, books and journals of all kinds, and cooking equipment that could only be described as extraordinary. It was more likely to see a Penis Protector from New Guinea than fancy furniture. It was common, as a next door neighbor, to hear peels of music of all kinds emanating from his house along with savory smells of ethnic and domestic food of all kinds. It was not uncommon to find an entire goat or pig on a homemade rotisserie being turned by a DeWalt power drill suspended over a livestock feed tub full of charcoal by a frame fashioned from coat hangers. The old piano that was missing a large number of ivories, and out of tune by half an octave, still sounded good with the myriad of jews harps, a violin, squeeze boxes and an accordion to name a few. Karl opened his home on holidays to those who had nowhere to go, and for sure, no one starved. Christmas trees were decorated with surgical instruments, prophylactics of all kinds and other bizarre items that would never be found on any other Christmas tree in the universe.
His love of boats was prodigious yet discerning. He loved seeing a ship being sunk by explosives to become marine habitat, yet, his description of fancy yachts was “plastic dreadnauts” that should be also sunk with their owners aboard. His own boats ranged from a well used Glassply, dubbed the D’ile deaux, the Afreda E. Newman, a hapless aluminum pram full of holes patched with match sticks that continually popped out and sunk us, to a large Navy lifeboat, dubbed the “Black Power” mostly used to float down rivers. Most of the river trips with Rupe were tantamount to near death experiences. He loved to travel to sites exploring sunken ships and would frequently sign on as “Medical Officer” to be able to take expenses off his taxes. On one trip back from Neah Bay with the D’ile deaux on the trailer behind the white trash an inadvertent tire passed us on the highway. Karl commented that “someone must really have a problem. I asked if his trailer usually threw out so many sparks. The errant tire continued over the side of the road about 100’ down into the Skokomish River and the White Trash and now smoking trailer screeched to a halt. We were right in front of an old farmhouse surrounded with various debris including a number of long dead vehicles. The old guy came out of the house and looked us over, and said: “Calkins Trailer, right? ’67 Oldsmobile fits that, got one right out back”. I swear, we lived under a beam of light.. For many years we would take a major camping trip to Sucia Island. People we met there, not related to our party, were so drawn to Karl that they came back to the same beach for many years just to sit around the camp fire and tell and hear stories.
His automobiles were as special as his boats. Big, old station wagons that could carry the “Black Power” on top, could contain his dive equipment and bicycle inside. All affectionately referred to as “White Trash”. One time, when he was on a trip, we replaced his car with a similar one because the first one was a dreadful menace. We simply changed the keys on his ring. Several weeks later he commented: “This car seems different”.
Travel was in his blood. He, of course, already had a big taste of Asia in the war before we met, but was always up to go back, and we did. Many times. There was never a dull moment traveling with Karl, as children flocked to him as he handed out little toys he bought for all of them. He referred to himself as “Da Bitzi”(big nose) and took delight in playing games with any and all. A trip down the Amazon river was full of peril and grandeur. A side trip up the Rio Negro in a small boat featured a flying, very large, Pirhana hitting Karl in the arm before it landed in the boat, mouth full of teeth pulsating,and Karl non-challantly observed: “I think he might be hungry”. Further down the river, Rupe regaled some on board with stories of the “thok of poisoned arrows” he “heard” hitting the hull of our boat. He relished the effect these comments had on people as their eyes attained the size of dinner plates, and then he would feign hearing muffled screams from the jungle along the river. He kept everyone in stiches and fearing for their lives all at the same time. On a memorable trip up the Yangtze River we saw the last of the Ba People who were inundated with water from the filling of the three gorges dam. My daughter, on that same trip, embarked on a remarkable career. She felt Karl’s presence in her life allowed her to step out, take risks, and embark on an extraordinary life. On Zanzibar we swam with immense turtles and sailed in some of the most crude little boats called “dows”. Karl embraced the Masai Warriors who were as tall as he as well as the bushmen who were only up to his waist. Karl loved it all. The stories are endless.
Rupe was absolutely loyal to his friends and helped them in so many ways. He felt things deeply. He came to visit me the day his friend of many years, Lim Chew Pah, passed away. He again sobbed uncontrollably.
This was a man who lived his life to the fullest. He was generous to a fault and did not harbor animosity or hate. It was an absolute privilege to know him. He will be missed.
Rolf Eriksen
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The family of Karl Don Ruppert uploaded a photo
Thursday, March 26, 2020
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The family of Karl Don Ruppert uploaded a photo
Thursday, March 26, 2020
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The family of Karl Don Ruppert uploaded a photo
Thursday, March 26, 2020
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The family of Karl Don Ruppert uploaded a photo
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
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The family of Karl Don Ruppert uploaded a photo
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
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