1883 – 1929 (June 4)
Joseph Bernard Kepperling, son of Winfield Scot Kepperling, a farmer, and Margaret Dwyer, was born in Pleasant Hill, Miami County, Ohio on February 25, 1883. He attended St. Mary’s Parish School in Piqua, Ohio, and Piqua Public Schools, before enrolling in Villanova Prep, Villanova, Pennsylvania. He entered the novitiate at Villanova, on July 5, 1906 and professed simple vows on July 5, 1907. He was solemnl professed in 1910 and, in 1912, assigned to teach at Saint Rita’s High School in Chicago, Illinois. He was ordained on May 17, 1913, in the Cathedral in Chicago, by Archbishop James Quigley.
After ordination, Father Kepperling was assigned to teach in our school in Havana, Cuba. Later he also served on the faculty at Malvern Preparatory School. From Malvern, he was transferred to Saint Laurence Parish in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Father Kepperling’s last assignment, as his first, was at Saint Rita’s High School in Chicago where he was appointed prior and rector in 1926. He died at St. Bernard Hospital, Chicago, on the morning of June 4, 1929, after a two-week bout with pneumonia. He was 46 years of age. The Funeral was held in the chapel of Saint Rita High School on Friday, June 7, 1929, followed by burial at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Chicago.
