Known as Zip by his friends, Dad by his sons and Papa by his many grandchildren, our father was born at Swedish Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota on January 18, 1941 to Thomas and Elvera Zipoy. He had two sisters, Helen and Joan, and one brother, Roger. He met our mother Bonnie Perry in seventh grade and became sweethearts in high school. They married when they were both 20 years old. On March 18th, they would have been married 59 years.
Our Dad served in the Army as a heavy vehicle driver and was active duty for six months. He graduated second in his class at Northwest TV & Electronics and was quickly hired by IBM. He then attended night school and graduated from the University of Minnesota. After nearly four years of marriage and now a career at IBM, they welcomed their first son, Blake, on January 4, 1965. 23 months later, their second son, Brad, was born on December 2, 1967. Then three years later, Brent was born on June 1, 1970.
Our Dad spent the next 38 years as an electrical engineer and in management, retiring from IBM in 2002. He worked on the RISC 600, 2501, 5100, and 2540 series for State Farm. He then went on to work for Newisys for the next several years before finally retiring for good and traveling the world with our Mom.
Our Dad was an amazing father. Always ready with a joke, he was the first one to grab the microphone at Cub Scout pinewood derbies or Indian Guides gatherings. He was our coach on all of our sports teams, always making us prove to the rest of the players why we were the starters. He taught all three of his sons how to be good husbands and even better fathers. He was blessed with three daughters-in-law; Carol, Laura and Lynn and seven grandchildren; Joshua, Abigail and Morgan from Blake; Perry and Peyton from Brad; and Jacob and Haylie from Brent. In 2017, my Dad became a great grandfather with the birth of Jax to his grandson Josh. A second blessing came last October with the arrival of Jax’s brother, Lane.
Our Dad always loved having his family around him, relishing in traditions like having fondue on Christmas Eve and attending every family reunion. He loved traveling the world with our Mom, beating players thirty years younger racquetball, and woodworking different projects for my Mom’s craft shows.
Our parents kept very busy. Every afternoon, my Mom and Dad would play Rummikub, keeping a running score and converting their many friends to the game. He loved watching his grandchildren participating in all their activities. Both Mom and Dad were extras in movies like The Rookie where he played an umpire. They volunteered as ushers at many venues in Austin, their favorite being One World Theatre. And you could always find our Dad singing along to his favorite singer, Celine Dion. One of his highlights being receiving an autographed copy made out specially to him at one of her concerts.
Our Dad is our hero. He is the one person we have all tried to be like. And the world is a little less bright with his absence. The one thing we do know is that his legacy, character and traditions will always live on for generations by the lives he touched and smiles he created.
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