In Memory

Minnie Ruth Dexter Klipfel

Minnie Ruth Dexter

August 18, 1924 - February 6, 2007

 Faculty circa 1947

Minnie Ruth Dexter died February 6, 2007.  Minnie Ruth was my 10th grade English teacher--her first year at SPHS.  She also mentored an award winning string quartet while teaching in our school.

I maintained contact until just a couple or three years ago when an envelope was returned by the post office.  She was no longer in South San Franciso.  Through the Pomona College alumni office I got her new address.  In the late 1940s/early 1950s, she joined the Sierra Club, and on a hike met Alvin Klipfel who became her husband of 52 years.  They raised Paul, Mark, and Glen Klipfel and Faith Klipfel Rumm in South San Francisco.  Any alumni who had her as a teacher was very lucky, and most of them knew it when they were students...they did not need hindsight.

For 50 years she taught music (private violin lessons) and she performed with the San Franciso Bach Orchestra, the Marin Symphony, and the San Mateo Quartet.  For over 30 years she conducted the First Lutheran Choir in South San Francisco.

She touched many lives for the better, and many of her first students were at SPHS.

Submitted by Alan Cook '49