George Lipponer, general contractor, Korean War veteran, dies at 92

When George Lipponer shipped home to East Patchogue for a 30-day leave after seven months fighting in the Korean War, his parents happily told a reporter in an interview that their son, the Marine, had not been wounded.

Lipponer had not told them of the severe frostbite he had suffered in combat, which eventually left him with partly disabled extremities and earned him a Purple Heart.

“He was very reserved. He was very quiet,” said his son Steven Lipponer, of Lake Grove, who speculated that either his father had not wanted to worry them or that he himself had not realized the severity of his injury.

“He was tough. He endured a lot,” said Pat Travis, a friend and neighbor in Lake Ronkonkoma, where Lipponer died at home of natural causes July 25 at the age of 92.

“He went to war and he almost froze to death,” she said. “That generation” who lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War and the Cold War, “endured hardships, got through it and still had a smile on their face.”

For Lipponer, those life trials also included the deaths of his older brother, Henry, in 1952 at age 21; his eldest son, George Jr., at age 23 in 1978; and his wife of 60 years, Marie-Dove Orefice Lipponer, in 2012 at age 81.

Despite everything, said Travis, “He was funny and he had a great attitude, a great outlook.” The disability that plagued him, particularly in cold weather, did not stop him from establishing himself as a general contractor who, said his son, built “probably 50 or more homes” on Long Island throughout his life and also did interior remodeling.

George Rudolph Lipponer was born Oct. 20, 1931, in Brookhaven and raised in that town’s hamlet of East Patchogue and its Village of Bellport. He was the younger of two sons of German immigrants Henry Lipponer and Clara Salzmann Lipponer.

After graduating from Bellport High School in 1949, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps the following year. During the Korean War he took part in the Inchon amphibious landing of Sept. 15-26, 1950 — in which approximately 3,500 United Nations forces including 1,482 U.S. Marines suffered casualties — and the subsequent capture of Seoul.

He went on to the Wonsan-Hungnam-Chosin Campaign, inside North Korea. Lasting from Nov. 27 to Dec. 24, it included what the U.S. Navy calls “one of the coldest winters in recorded weather history to that point.”

Lipponer was promoted to sergeant in November 1951 and discharged in March 1954 after serving stateside in a recruitment office in Baltimore. His discharge form lists, in addition to his Purple Heart, a Presidential Unit Citation, a Good Conduct Medal, a Korean Service Medal, a United Nations Service Medal and a National Defense Service Medal.

He married in 1952, and he and his wife raised six children in Lake Ronkonkoma. “No matter what, he always had time for us,” said his son. “I have fond memories of him coming home from work and having a catch with me and my sister.”

He and his siblings played high school sports, and their father "was always at the football games, at the wrestling matches, always there for us when we needed him to be there.”

Lipponer was a member of veterans groups including Chosin Few, Disabled American Veterans and 1st Marine Division Association. A lifelong learner, he took courses at Suffolk County Community College and the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury. He lived in Florida part of the year.

He collected antiques and was an avid golfer. “George liked to go to all different public courses,” said his friend and golf buddy Jim Nidds, of Lake Grove. “We were not that good at it, but we did see quite a few courses.”

Lipponer self-published six books, including a memoir and four novels, plus a screenplay. He was among the veterans interviewed for author James Brady’s 2007 book, “Why Marines Fight.”

In addition to his son Steven, he is survived by sons Henry, of Melbourne, Florida; Frank, of Patchogue; and Vincent, of Satellite Beach, Florida; and daughter Clare, of Patchogue, as well as nine grandchildren.

Visitation and a service were held July 28 at the Moloney’s funeral home in Lake Ronkonkoma, followed by a prayer service there the next day. He was buried with military honors at Washington Memorial Park in Mount Sinai.