Thomas Mathew Kloppel

Thomas Mathew Kloppel, Ph.D., was born October 27, 1950, 8:03 p.m. at Lamb Memorial Hospital in Denver, Colorado, and passed away surrounded by the love of his family in Denver on August 14, 2025, 4 p.m., age 74.

Tom graduated in 1968 from Aurora Central High School in Aurora, Colorado, as a four-sport athlete for the Trojans – football (first as a quarterback in high school, a position he loved, until he grew so big the coach moved him into both offensive tackle and defensive tackle positions simultaneously), basketball (forward low post), track (discus and shot put), and golf.

But don’t assume he was all brawn: On May 4, 1967, while a high-school junior, Tom was inducted into National Honor Society, just a starting point in his noteworthy educational career – which eventually totaled 23 years of formal education culminating in his success of being awarded his Ph.D., the highest academic degree in a specific field of study. A look at the 1968 Borealis, the yearbook from his senior year at Aurora Central High School in the Denver-metro area, shows an earnest young man who was a basketball and football star, as well as a frequent and handsome nominee to social events such as Pep Club dance royalty and Prom royalty. His photos scattered liberally throughout the 1968 Borealis point to his very real talents in athleticism, both on the basketball court and on the football field.

“As a football star in high school, Tom was a ‘two-way guy,’ meaning he stayed on the field whether his team had the ball or not – in every game; he was that good,” said his younger brother, Steve Kloppel, when asked how a football player can be both an offensive tackle and a defensive tackle simultaneously. In his senior year of high school, Tom was selected for The Denver Post’s 1967 All-Star Football Team (also called the All-State football team) and Tom received three full-ride athletic scholarship offers in the football programs of Cornell University, Brigham Young University, and Colorado State University (CSU). Football coaches from the University of Colorado, Dartmouth, and Stanford sent letters of interest to him as well.

One of those letters, never once mentioned by Tom to anyone in his family nor to his friends, was discovered in an old box of Tom’s high-school memorabilia after his death. Written by football coach Steve Ortmayer on University of Colorado Intercollegiate Athletics letterhead, the letter consisted of nine hand-written pages that referred to several phone calls Coach Ortmayer and Coach Walt Franklin had made with Tom previously, the last one the night prior from Coach Franklin’s home. “Tom it certainly isn’t my policy to write a boy a letter like this in fact this is the only one of this nature I’ve ever written! You’re a good football player Tom. You can play for us at CU….don’t ever regret not giving a top opportunity a good try….” Apparently Tom had mentioned the party school reputation he’d heard about the University of Colorado, to which Ortmayer responded: “You can get the education you want simply by striving for it – astronauts like Swigert [John Swigert Jr. mechanical engineer, aerospace engineer, US Air Force Pilot, NASA astronaut]; Rhodes scholars like Byron White [Byron “Whizzer” White, who played NFL football for the Pittsburg Pirates and later became a John F. Kennedy-nominated U.S. Supreme Court Justice] and Joe Romig [offensive guard for the CU Buffaloes with a Ph.D. in Astro-geophysics who worked in the private sector then taught Astronomy at CU Boulder], pro athletes like Boyd Dowler [who became one of Vince Lombardi's most trusted Green Bay Packers players during the Packers' dynasty years] and Jerry Hillebrand [selected by the New York Giants in the first round of the 1962 NFL draft following his football career at the University of Colorado] are not at all considered “drunks and party boys.” Before signing off his 9-page letter, Coach Ortmayer wrote: “Tom it was a real pleasure to meet your family the other evening. I’d sure like to shoot a game of billiards with your dad sometime. I enjoyed him very much. Think about it a little Tom and weigh the whole situation on paper – Two things 1.) Don’t sell yourself short 2.) Be happy. Good luck buddy this last week of roundball. Sincerely, Steve Ortmayer.” Coach Ortmayer later became a professional football coach, who had a 25-year career in the NFL with teams including the 1979-1994 Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, as an assistant coach in helping the Raiders’ achieve their two Super Bowl championship teams in 1980 and 1983, as well as stints with the Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers.

But even with all that hand-written, good-natured arm-twisting by Coach Ortmayer, Tom decided in his senior year of high school to accept the full-ride football scholarship with the Colorado State University Rams. There were other memorable successes during his senior year at Aurora Central High School as well.

Due to his academic excellence in high school and his exceptional athleticism and physical fitness, Tom also was nominated during his senior year in high school by Donald G. Brotzman, US Congressman serving in Washington, D.C., to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That nomination was featured in the Jan. 31, 1968, issue of The Aurora Advocate with this headline: “Aurorans Included in Brotzman’s Nominations.” Eager and willing to serve his country as a future U.S. Air Force pilot, Tom was sadly disappointed after he took the academy’s physical examination and, although fit in every other way he was pronounced colorblind, and therefore not eligible to train as a pilot in that prestigious military educational program. Consequently, fate again pointed Tom toward Colorado State University’s full-ride athletic scholarship, where Tom played for the Rams football team and also joined ROTC in his freshman year (because this was the era of the Vietnam War, Tom found it prudent to be prepared).

Tom earned his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology in 1972 from Colorado State University, followed by a two-year Master of Science degree awarded in May 1974 from CSU in Fish Nutrition and Disease with his Master of Science thesis titled, “Tryptophan Deficiency in Rainbow Trout.” With the support of Professor George Post, Ph.D., in the department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology at Colorado State University, Tom’s abstract, titled “Histological Alterations in Tryptophan-deficient Rainbow Trout,” was published in The Journal of Nutrition in July 1975 with Tom as first author and Dr. Post as second author.

That same year, Tom was accepted into doctoral programs at several highly respected universities but chose the Ph.D. program at prestigious Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he could teach college students and nursing students for a modest stipend while simultaneously earning his Ph.D. in biochemistry and medicinal chemistry, as he tackled the challenging study of cancer.

Tom’s major professor at Purdue University, D. James Morré, Ph.D., was a professor of medicinal chemistry with a joint appointment at Purdue University in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Fall 1974, when Tom joined Dr. Morré as a Ph.D. candidate.

From the beginning of his studies at Purdue University, Tom worked with D. James Morré, Ph.D., on cancer research, and during that time, from 1976 to 1986, Dr. Morré held the role as the first director of the Purdue University Cancer Center. Tom also worked with Thomas W. Keenan, Ph.D., professor of animal sciences at Purdue. While earning his Ph.D. in biochemistry, Tom contributed abstracts as first author in many prestigious scientific journals while teaching undergraduate students at both Purdue University in W. Lafayette (teaching botany and microbiology) and at St. Elizabeth’s School of Nursing in Lafayette (teaching microbiology) while completing his doctorate. An article that appeared in the Journal and Courier, Lafayette, Ind., May 9, 1978, stated, “Morré and Keenan found with graduate student Thomas Kloppel that cancer cells shed from their surface a chemical compound which analysis of blood serum can show.” An article the May 5, 1978, issue of The Republic, in Columbus, Indiana, highlighted Tom’s Purdue Sigma Xi Graduate Student Research First Place award and stated Tom Kloppel’s research shows “that the blood of animals with tumors have more sialic acid than the blood of animal without tumors. Testing human blood for sialic acid content could be an early detection method in cancer testing, he believes.”

At Purdue University Tom excelled, earning First Place out of four awards granted in the Purdue Sigma Xi (the scientific research honor society) Graduate Student Research Awards on April 24, 1978, for his development of a sialic-acid test in human blood for the early detection of cancer. As the first-place Sigma Xi winner, Tom was awarded $250 (an amount that at that time paid for two months of rent on the Kloppels’ 2-bedroom house in Lafayette, Indiana, plus $50 left over that paid for four weeks’ worth of poor-college-student groceries). Tom’s discovery was so successful, the technique began undergoing clinical trials and helped contribute to today’s use of blood tests for early cancer detection. Always humble, Tom had been told when he first began his studies at Purdue in Fall 1974, he had achieved the highest MCAT score of any graduate-school applicant in the university’s biological sciences department that year; however, never one to try to outdo his friends, he kept that information to himself for more than 50 years.

On Sat., June 26, 1976, Tom married Myra Nugent, a Purdue University undergraduate, in a 100-guest ceremony conducted by Reverend L. Eugene “Gene” Brown, the bride’s uncle, with six attendants in the wedding party. The event was held under a canopy of trees near the small lake at her parents’ country home in Columbus, Indiana. While at Purdue, their daughter Erika Lauren Kloppel was born Nov. 20,1977. Tom was awarded his Ph.D. on May 8, 1979, with the completion of his 242-page doctoral thesis titled “Sialic Acid and Tumorigenesis: A Cancer Detection Potential,” and the successful completion of his dissertation defense to the five Purdue departmental heads who made up his graduate committee. Immediately Dr. Kloppel moved his young family to Denver to begin his postdoctoral fellowship at National Jewish Hospital and Research Center in Denver, Colorado, under the auspices of immunologist Howard M. Grey, M.D., a highly respected biochemist and a pioneering immunologist newly employed at National Jewish Hospital having come from the Scripps Institute in La Jolla, CA. The Kloppel’s second child, Seth Mathew Kloppel, was born in Denver on July 18, 1980.

Two years later, Tom was recruited to the University of Colorado School of Medicine by William R. Brown, M.D. Dr. Brown, a gastroenterologist and professor at the University of Colorado’s Denver Health Sciences Center, brought Tom onto his team of clinical-researcher gastroenterologists and scientists, where Tom enjoyed many years of camaraderie and medical research with that knowledgeable team of physicians and researchers. Tom also joined the faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver as part of his job responsibilities and taught biological sciences to both the university’s medical students and dental students.

As a lifelong athlete and advanced black-diamond skier, Tom spent his free time introducing many young people to the beauty of downhill skiing in Colorado’s majestic Rocky Mountains, including teaching his future wife Myra to ski in 1975, then both of their children, Erika and Seth, when they were 6 and 4, eventually leading the entire family to black-diamond skill levels and decades of enjoyment in Colorado’s Ski Resorts. At age 62, Tom decided it would be fun to teach skiing at Breckenridge Ski Resort; he passed the rigorous physical tests required to become a ski instructor with Vail Resorts (owner of Breckenridge Ski Resort) and alternately instructed both adults and children for three years. At some point during this era, Tom – always an enthusiastic student ready to learn something new -- decided he’d like to learn more about emergency medicine and took the courses and tests to become an Emergency Medical Technician. He passed the EMT test and worked a few of his final days in training doing triage at a Denver hospital, stocking ambulances, and riding in an ambulance with experienced EMTs. Tom loved a good challenge, and although he had no intention of ever gaining employment as an EMT, he did feel good about carrying that knowledge with him for the rest of his life, just in case of an emergency.

Following his retirement from his scientific career, Tom built a successful business as owner of Colorado Real Estate & Property Management Inc., helping families buy and sell homes throughout the Denver Metro area as well as in the ski-resort towns of Summit County in Colorado. He enjoyed helping families find homes that would give them many years of pleasure.

Tom’s greatest joy was his family -- his wife Myra, their daughter Erika, their son Seth, and his four beloved grandchildren, Aubrey and Lacey Kloppel, and Josie and Colton Shorter. Friends and neighbors remember Tom’s zest for life, and to prove it Tom always had a garage filled with gear for skiing, hiking, kayaking, camping, back-packing, fly fishing, bicycling (both road and mountain biking), basketball, handball, archery, hunting, pickleball, tennis, golf and more, packing up his four-wheel drive vehicle whenever possible for adventures with his friends and/or family, many times including the family dogs: Labrador retrievers, from first dog Shiloh to their last, Marshall -- with a sassy beagle named Chuck in between.

If there was a dance floor, Tom was on it. If someone wanted a mountain hike that started at 10,000 feet above sea level, Tom was the first person to lace up his hiking boots and lead the troops to the trailhead. Neighbors fondly recalled seeing three generations of the Kloppel family playing flag football outside on their knees one warm Thanksgiving Day – at Tom’s suggestion -- so even the youngest grandchildren, nieces, and nephews could participate. He coached both of his children in organized sports such as T-ball, softball, and basketball to give them the keys to the sporting life he so loved. Though initially hesitant to explore his softer side, Tom grew to love visiting world-renowned art museums, as long as there was some scenic road bicycling prior or aft, just to add some extra zest to the trip!

His love of bicycling spurred Tom and Myra to pedal the challenging hill country of San Gimignano and the romantic Loure Valley with friends in 2006, 2008, and 2014, but more importantly, he was the Team Captain for three bicycling teams in Colorado, who contributed their cycling power to raise money for The National Multiple Sclerosis Society. For 16 years Tom was the team captain of Fit to Be Tired (12 years), We Conduit (2 years), and Team Elite (2 years) to raise money for the MS Society. Tom personally raised $22,817.00 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society during those 16 years, and collectively the members of Tom’s three teams -- made up of family members and friends -- raised $167,728.00 for MS research during those 16 years. To earn those MS donations, the members of these three MS bicycling teams rode 75 miles 2 days in a row supported by the MS Society with food and rest stations, for a total of 150 tough biking miles in this MS-sponsored event held one June weekend each year. These monies couldn’t have been raised without the very generous support of family members and friends.

Meanwhile, Tom cherished and nurtured his lifelong friendships made in junior high and high school, at Colorado State University, Purdue University, and in Colorado in his scientific and university teaching career and later in his real estate career, where he and his companions worked hard and played even harder.

Many people admired Tom: he was toughness and tenderness rolled into one man, a fellow always ready for fun, yet a man who knew when it was time to buckle down and get to work. He was a hero to many, most of all to his wife of 49 years Myra, his soulmate, and to his treasured children: daughter Erika, son Seth, and his four beautiful grandchildren.

Tom was preceded in death by his father, Keith Munger Kloppel, a Second Lieutenant in the US Army in World War II, and later a Denver police officer and county sheriff’s deputy; and by Tom’s mother, Betty Ann Mathews Kloppel, whose great-, great-, great-, great-, great-grandfather Thomas Mathews and wife Margaret Stuart, born in Ireland, greeted the arrival of their son James Stewart Mathews and his twin (name lost due to death in infancy) at sea July 24, 1787, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the Port of Philadelphia. James Stewart Mathews later moved his family as far west as Baxter Springs, Kansas, with James’ son Andrew Scott Mathews making his way further west to beautiful Longmont, Colorado, where Tom’s maternal grandfather Francis Andrew Mathews became a dairy rancher and Tom’s great-grandfather Ray Ralph Mathews became the Mayor of Ft. Collins, Colorado, in 1936-1942.

Tom is survived by Myra, his wife of 49 years, their daughter Erika Kloppel Shorter of Greenwood Village, CO, her husband Brian Shorter, their children Josie and Colton Shorter; their son Seth Kloppel of Parker, CO, and his wife Brooke, Seth’s children Aubrey and Lacey Kloppel, as well as Tom’s beloved friend and younger brother Steve, Steve’s wife Gail, sister-in-law Jan Nugent, three nieces, two nephews, five great-nieces, and six great-nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Tom’s name to: The Colorado-Utah-Wyoming Chapter of Multiple Sclerosis Association; or Tunnels to Towers, an organization that provides mortgage-free homes to families of fallen first responders and Gold Star families; or the American Heart Association, three charities he and Myra supported. Per Tom’s request, a private memorial service including 80 friends and family was held in a private home garden in Greenwood Village, CO, on Sat., Sept. 13, 2025.

Of all the many gatherings held over the years, the Kloppel family may most remember the many times Tom led his family -- his adult children, their spouses, and Tom and Myra’s four grandchildren -- down the driveway on their bicycles to the nearby miles of Denver’s bike trails, around the lake, and sometimes to points beyond. Like a family of baby ducks, the children followed their leader in single file, learning the rules of safe bicycling while realizing the endorphin rush that comes with enjoying sporting fun. Tom was a man’s man, but even more so he was a dedicated father and leader of a family who will always love him.

First Note: Tom received many mentions for his athletic prowess in The Denver Post, one of which ran Sunday, Jan. 28, 1968, in The Sunday Denver Post: “Teams Named for All-State Contest” stated: “…All-Staters are tackle Tom Kloppel of Aurora Central…” Another newspaper article announced his college of choice on Aug. 4, 1968, page 48 in The Sunday Denver Post titled: “2 Wheat Ridge All-state Gridders to Play at CSU”: “Four other 1967 All-state picks have signed up for freshman practice. They include guard Tom Kloppel of Aurora Central…Tom Kloppel was a “Class AAA All-Stater…Kloppel, a 210-pounder, was named to the Post’s All-State team for his outstanding defensive play.”

Second Note: Oxford Academic, Journal of the National Cancer Institute published Tom’s research study titled: “Characteristics of Transplantable Tumors Induced in the Rat by N-2-Fluorenylacetamide: Elevations in Tissue and Serum Sialic Acid,” a scientific paper in which Tom was first author and his major professor at Purdue University, D. James Morré, M.D., was second author.

Third Note: Indiana Academy of Science published “Sialic Acid elevated in Experimental Liver Cancer,” first author Thomas M. Kloppel, again with D. Jame Morré, et.al, from Tom’s research at Purdue University in W. Lafayette, Indiana, supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, CA.

Fourth Note: The above snippets are only a small sampling of Tom’s many scientific articles and abstracts. Many more scientific abstracts written by Tom Kloppel as first author, second author, etc., can be found online by Googling variations of Tom’s name: i.e., T.M. Kloppel, Thomas M. Kloppel, etc.