January 19, 2013
Ray Bopp 1925 - 2013
My
dad, Rayman Conrad Bopp, Jr. died in his sleep Saturday morning, January
19, 2013. The cause was acute leukemia, stemming from a rare bone-marrow
disorder called myelofibrosis for which he was diagnosed following a
stroke in 2007.
Ray
& wife Jeanne in 1986 at Vandenberg
AFB; photos by Tom Bopp
A
Tribute
Dad
had a lot of different jobs over his long life, but most recently
retired from managing security for special projects in the aerospace
industry of southern California for TRW (since absorbed by Northrop
Grumman) and before that Hughes Aircraft Co. (Space
& Communications) After sending notices of his death to his
email list, this tribute came in:
Dear
Tom and Diane
That
is sad news. Thank you for telling me. Your dad was my security manager
for many years at TRW. He was a real team member and often helped out in
areas outside his area of expertise just so the security of the nation
would remain strong. You, and all of the rest of the people in the
United States, should sleep a lot better because of the work that your
father did. It is too bad you cannot know the details of what he did but
you should know he put the security of the United States of America
above all else. And his humor and smile always enlightened people’s
day.
I
have followed your career through Ray at Yosemite. I climbed there in
the 1970s and 1980s, sleeping at Camp 4 on trips to the Valley. You are
very fortunate to have such a majestic place to work and to have had
such a great father.
-- David Vandervoet
Vice
President, TRW and Northrop Grumman Corp
Among
the items Dad kept on his dresser was this card from Mom with a
photograph and her inscription on the back:
I
think I can safely say that the email and card show two of Dad's
greatest achievements - the love he shared with my mom (who died in
1987), and the
accomplishments in his career in national security, which remain
classified to this day, due much to his own diligence. Beyond that, also
on his dresser-tops, walls, and throughout his house were pictures of
his family, granddaughters, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews,
attesting to his great love of his family for whom he provided a safe
and stable home.
As
time allows, I intend to add pictures and stories as further tribute to
my dad, and to memorialize his remarkable life. I request of all who
knew him to please email your stories to me so I may reference them on
this site.
Thanks,
Tom
Bopp
Ray
and Jeanne Bopp, May 24, 1952 (colorized) [Dad always carried an
original black-and-white print of this in his wallet].
COMMENTS
AND REMINISCENCES
Read all comments here, or follow the links in the CHRONOLOGY below
to read specific comments.
CHRONOLOGY
Note: Dad told me more than once that he would
quit a job if he found himself liking it too much.
Note: Most sources (unless otherwise noted) for residences and
employment come from Dad's own employment history files, particularly
from job applications and security background questionnaires from the
late 1950s - 1970s.
10/23/1925
Born in Chicago (on the same day as Johnny Carson). Sometime after his
birth and before 1936, he and his family lived upstairs in his mother's
parents' home (out of financial necessity) at 12119 South Peoria, in a
frame house constructed by his grandfather Martin Koch.
1936 - 1938
Residence: 7457 Bennett Ave.
[Date undetermined]
Residence: 19 1/2 E. 72nd Place. This address doesn't show up in
Dad's employment history files, but he told me in an interview (Nov.
2012) that
the family lived here at the time he was given a pith helmet and a
broken rifle from a relative - Mr. Fernald - who was clearing out junk
to throw into a trash heap. The "junk" included a crystal
regulator clock. In the same interview he said that the family moved
from this residence during the time he was a patient at La Rabida (see
upcoming listing).
Reminiscence: The Clock
1938 - 1939
Spent 5-6 months in La
Rabida Hospital for investigation of heart disease after scarlet fever.
1938 - 1/1940
Residence: 69 W. 72nd Street
1/1940 - 5/1944
Residence: 7715 Burnham Ave. Note that rents went up on May 1st - thus
the succession of moves over the years in that month, and the line from
the verse of Rogers & Hart's "Mountain Greenery": "On
the first of May, it is moving day..." This residence featured a
tall tree that Dad would climb to the top and recline on one of its
boughs.
Reminiscence: The Tree
1941-1942
Attended (and graduated from) Myra
Bradwell Elementary School
1942-1943
Attended South
Shore High School; dropped out.
1943
Employment: Seagram's Distillers; stockboy. This was in what was then
called the Pure
Oil Building at 35 East Wacker Drive in Chicago; it was one of his
favorite buildings.
Reminiscence: The Pure Oil Building Adventure
1944
Ordered to report for physical exam by Selective Service on 1/24/1944; a
letter from Selective Service dated 12/17/1944 certifies he was
"rejected for Service in the Armed Forces" due to various
physical conditions.
5/1944 - 5/1945
Residence: 7938 Colfax Ave.
2/18/45 – 10/16/45
Employment: Pullman Co., Merchandise Mart Building, Chicago, Ill. employed as a clerk, resigning
voluntarily.
[According to Dad, his official position was Vermin Clerk; he told me he
took the job mainly so he could claim that he’d once held that
position. His job was to process reports of vermin in the Pullman
railroad cars. He remembered one report of a lady awakening with a
shriek upon finding a sleeping mouse nestled atop the base of her neck to keep
warm.]
5/1945 - 6/1950
Residence: 6130 Ingleside Ave.
Employment: around these years he sang at the Crown
Propeller Lounge at 63rd and Cottage Grove; he remembered the
drummer in the band, Barrett Deems, who for years was Louis Armstrong's
drummer. He remembered singing "Penthouse Serenade,"
"Deep Purple," and a jazzed up version of "Bibbidy-Bobbidy-Boo."
10/1945 - 2/1946
Employment: Railroad Retirement Board, American
Fore Building; Multilith Operator (offset printing, etc.).
2/1946 - 6/1946
Employment: Balaban
& Katz; Usher (he didn't remember which theater; I do remember
his telling me he was an usher sometime later at Orchestra Hall,
Chicago).
6/1946 - 9/1946
Employment: Morrison Hotel, Chicago; Elevator Operator. In a handwritten
note Dad indicates he went back to school around this time.
9/1946 - 6/1947
Employment: Gragg Rug Cleaners, 915 E. 7Sth St., Chicago, Ill.; truck
driver for Ray Gragg
12/2/1946 – 12/24/1946
Employment: Marshall Field & Co., Chicago, Ill. [He also worked here
in 1947-1950, and 1952-1954, according to available records.]
11/14/1947 - 7/17/1948
Military Service: Private, Illinois National Guard (Honorable Discharge;
classification 3A)
Employment (June - October 1947):
Robertson Brothers Curtain Cleaners, 5726 N. Western, Chicago, Ill.;
truck driver.
10/17/1947 – 6/1950
Employment: Marshall Field & Co., Chicago, Ill.
He worked there in shoe sales, where he was
friends with Mike Royko who worked there as a stock boy. He also sang in
the Marshall Field Choral Society and remembered singing behind featured
guest soloists Mario Lanza and Al Jolson. He sang a solo performance in
one of their concerts of "Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk."
Choral director Albert P Stewart liked his singing so much that he
offered him a scholarship to Purdue University (where he taught), but my
dad declined for private reasons. Dad recalled attending a poetry
reading, probably accompanied by his friend, Peter Spengler Selby
(1916-1986), given by Edith Sitwell (likely during her 1948 U.S. tour),
Reminiscence - Ronald Bopp
(brother)
6/1950 – 9/1950
Employment: Associated T. V. Service, Riverside, Calif.
[He installed T.V. antennas; given the rural area, this involved very
tall multi-stage mast & guy-wire assemblies.]
Residence (mailing address, June - August 1950): Box 380, Norco, Calif.
9/1950 – 1/1952
Employment: Kaiser Steel Corp., Fontana, Calif. – Fireman &
ambulance driver. [He said he left this job to return to Chicago and
track down Jeanne Kenney and propose marriage.] Duties included
ambulance and first aid service to Riverside County. He received
training from the U. S. Bureau of Mines in "The Use and Care of
Self-Contained Oxygen Breathing Apparatus."
Residence: 1926 Indianapolis Street, Riverside, CA (This street
no longer exists - probably removed when the 91 freeway was
constructed).
12/1951 – 2/1952
Employment: Riverside Calif. Post Office
[He told me this was a temporary seasonal job, and was never able to get
confirmation from the U.S. Postal Service of his employment with them.
He said he thought he remembered that the
job was tied to Christmas deliveries.]
2/11/1952 – 1/6/1954
Employment: Marshall Field's Department Store. Though he claimed to be “Unemployed and traveling”during February to
March, 1952, according to an employment investigation in 1957, the same
report shows that Marshall Field’s employment records have him working
there, in Chicago, from 2/11/1952 – 1/6/1954. I think I remember him
saying he held down two jobs during this period (see entry for 4/1952).
Residence: for one month, 12119 Peoria St., Chicago
Employment: I'm not sure about just when, but Dad worked with another
fellow (I'll update the name and the time period if I find some info on
this) repossessing cars for a south Chicago car dealer named Hans
Lichtenfeld.
Reminiscence - Repo Man
4/1952 – 11/1952
Employment: Sky Coach Airlines, 36 W. Clark, Chicago, Ill; Dispatcher
[This is when he worked for Sky Coach Airlines, later Trans-Continental,
a “non-sched” airline for which he worked as a dispatcher. He wrote
more on this and I’ll post it here when I find it.]
3/1952 - 1/1953
Residence: 6036 S. Dorchester (given in an employment questionnaire,
this is a block south of the Midway Plaisance; it's corroborated by Jeanne Bopp's Social Security card from that
period)
5/24/1952
Married Jeanne E. Kenney
9/1952 – 2/1953
Employment: Mandel Brothers, State Street & Madison, Chicago, Ill.
Shoe Salesman
1/1953 - 7/1953
Residence: 6038 S. Blackstone Ave. (Address given in a
questionnaire).
7/1953 - 10/1955
Residence: 6614 S. Kenwood Ave.
10/1955 - 4/1957
Residence: 7833 Clyde Ave.
2/1953 – 4/1957
Employment: Ford Aircraft Engine Div., 7401 S. Cicero, Chicago, Ill.
Fireman, Fire Instructor. Here he delivered a series of sixteen lectures
on "Industrial Fire Prevention" (he very much enjoyed giving
lecture/demonstrations, and was particularly good at it).
5/1957 -
Residence: 617 Pine Drive, Torrance, CA
5/6/1957 - 2/1958
Employment: North American Rockwell, Los Angeles International Airport,
1700 East Imperial Hwy, El Segundo, CA; Fireman
2/1958 - 11/1958
Employment: North American Aviation/Atomics
International, Department 52, 21600 Van Owen, Canoga Park,
California; Fireman - Building Inspection and hazardous operations
standby service. Special training included suppression of radioactive
and alkali metal fires, and the handling and disposal of radioactive
waste. In a resume Dad wrote that the Fire Department had responsibility
for a diverse range of some 200 ongoing experiments in nuclear
technology. He invented a simple but innovative approach for fire
suppression in a sodium reactor experiment which I'll write about later
and post here.
10/1959 - 5/1963
Residence: 5604 Bartlett Drive, Torrance, CA
11/1958 - 7/1961
Employment: Hughes Aircraft Company, Centinela & Teale Street,
Culver City, CA; Fireman
7/1961 - 8/1961
Unemployed; looking for work.
8/1961 - 9/1961
Employment: Hughes Aircraft Company, Centinela & Teale Street,
Culver City, CA; Fireman
9/1961 - 2/1962
Employment: Nortronics Research Center (division of Northrop
Corporation), 6101 Crest Road, Palos Verdes, CA; Fireman.
2/1962
Employment: Hughes Aircraft Company, Centinela & Teale Street,
Culver City, CA; Fireman, fire prevention inspector, first-aid
instructor, etc.
5/1963 - 1993
Residence: 5520 Arvada St., Torrance, CA
1966 - 1967
Employment: Hughes Aircraft Co.; joins Security Department as Security
Inspector; redisignes and implements a security education program,
conducts security indoctrination lectures, writes monthly security
newspaper "The Security News" distributed to 19,000 employees.
1967
Employment: Hughes Aircraft Co.; Supervisor, Security Special Projects,
Services Division, Aerospace Group
1983
Employment: Retires from Hughes, hired by TRW
1993
Retires from TRW 2013
Died 1:14 a.m. January 19th in Oakhurst, CA
Buried 11:20 a.m. March 25th at Pacific Crest Cemetery, Redondo Beach,
CA, in the same plot as his beloved wife, Jeanne.
Reminiscence - The Burial
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