Dad's Memorial Info Page

Dad's Memorial Details

LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, 28 November 2006 02:25:08 PM (EDT)

Andrew James Lampe

(a.k.a. "Poor orphan kid from Pittsburgh")

12 January 1933 - 19 November 2006

There will be a memorial service for Dad on Thursday, 30 November 2006 at 10:30am at St. Mary's Church in Rockville, MD. Here is a link to St. Mary's. The 30th of November is St. Andrew's Day (info here) and Dad never let Mom forget it.

Handling the arrangements is Pumphrey Funeral Home in Rockville. They have a webpage for Dad here (click anywhere on this line).

The Washington Post has a guestbook for Dad too and you can see it here.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in Dad's name to the Holy Family Institute, 8235 Ohio River Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15202. (Here is a weblink)

Dad chose to be cremated and as a former officer in the Marine Corps, Dad qualifies for inurnment in the Columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His service there will include a flag-draped caisson, escort troops, firing party, bugler & band. The Arlington service will take place on Monday, 26 February 2007 at 11:00am. For some pictures of the Columbarium please click here. Another view of the Columbarium from the air: (Click here). Here is a link to more information: Columbarium information.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support and the nice emails and phone calls, etc. Dad was a special guy who touched a lot of lives. Dad cherished his family, friends and colleagues throughout his life.

Please email me at jim@lampes.org if you need more information or have questions.

(Look below for developing bio and pics on Dad)

(If you're having trouble accessing the guestbook, try clicking here instead)

I'm constantly updating this bio at this point...

Andrew James Lampe was born 12 January 1933 into a rough and tough world on the streets of McKeesport (Pittsburgh), PA. He had it bad at home and was shuttled between foster homes before ending up at Holy Family Institute north of town. In between the many homes and during the early times he lived with his father, Andrew Burke Lampe, Dad often slept in a dresser drawer as a baby in an apartment above Dell's Bar on Liberty Avenue. His Dad was a bartender there. They later shared a single room at a local YMCA. His Mom, Rose Quail passed away when he was about 12 years old. Eventually he met up with a special nun, Sister Rosalie of the Sisters of Charity Order, who mentored him helping cultivate his nascent interest in broadcasting. Dad took a radio course taught by Sister Rosalie who produced a radio program on Sunday afternoons at 1:15pm called "The Voice of Young America" over Pittsburgh's WPIT. Dad was one of her best students.

He attended North Catholic High School where he studied and worked part time for a local radio station (and at a Kroger grocery store) and also helped out with football game broadcasts. Dad said he used to broadcast the football games at North Catholic while Dan Rooney (current Steelers owner) was the quarterback on the field. Dad achieved a perfect attendance record throughout his 4 years earning him a small statue for which his pride would exceed even future, "more prestigious" accolades. During his junior year, he was bummed out when he came in second after some guy named Charles Kuralt (yes, same guy) to attend the summer National High School Radio Institute at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Kuralt backed out at the last minute and Dad was in. The program selected just 120 students from 30 states. For his efforts, Dad was later awarded a scholarship to the Northwestern School of Speech. Dad did radio work for WCAE and was a member of the National Scholastic Radio Guild. Dad participated in an Allegheny County speech competition in April of 1951. The competition was described this way: "This year 'George Washington, First President and Father of his Country', is the subject of the six-minute orations locally and from coast to coast in the prize-laden contest sponsored by the Hearst newspapers." Using the skills he acquired at the Northwestern summer program, Dad "bested nine competitors to take first place in Allegheny High" the local newspaper reported. The article goes on to state, "Oddly, he was the last student to enter this year's competition." Dad went on in October of 1951 to begin a weekly series of "Catholic High School News and Sports" programs over WDUQ. Dad later went on to take part in a weekly hour-long teenage program on WDTV (television). An article described it as, "he will appear to give sports news on grade and high schools, both private and public."

Dad excelled at Northwestern and joined the Delta Tau Delta (Delts) fraternity. He worked at the post office (holidays too) and helped to support his Dad back in Pittsburgh by sending cash.

Dad graduated from Northwestern (BS- School of Speech) & the Navy ROTC program in 1955. In an email he later wrote to a Marine brother Dad wrote, "...and got my gold bars in uniform, not a cap and gown..." He attended Basic School in Quantico, VA, applied for a specialty in Aviation and got it. Dad proudly became a Naval Aviator on 1 March 1957. Dad piloted fixed-winged propeller and even a couple of jet aircraft but he especially loved flying helicopters. He served with HMR-163 at Oppama, Japan from June 1957 to August 1958, "...with a lot of excursions on a couple of Aircraft Carriers and assignment in Okinawa and the Philippines in 1957-58." Dad returned to the US in August of 1958 and was assigned to the Marine Air Reserve Training Command at Glenview Naval Air Station, north of Chicago where he was involved in getting some of the first "Reserve Helo Squadrons" started. It was at Glenview that a mishap at home (something about cleaning paint brushes while smoking a cigar) landed him in the hospital with severe burns on his legs. He convalesced a while and there was one nurse in particular who took extra good care of him. It was a beautiful Navy nurse named Mona Koch from Lincoln, NE. The two hit it off and were married on 13 November 1960 (just celebrated 46 years together). By the way, Dad's Dad passed away in 1958, when Dad was 25.

As a 1st Lieutenant, Dad was honorably discharged from active duty in 1959 and joined the 3M Company (Dad joined the USMC Reserves and was honorably discharged as a Captain in 1968). Dad later wrote,

"After active duty, I flew with, and helped start, a reserve squadron until 1962...and because of job assignments with my civilian job, 3M Company, moving a lot, getting married and having our first baby...I opted out of the reserves about 1 February 1963. I missed it a lot and will always have a great loving appreciation for the USMC."

Dad wrote to the same colleague: "While still on active duty at the Glenview NAS on this glorious day, November 10 in 1958, since I was the junior officer on board as a 1st Lt., I got to cut the Birthday Cake with the sword along with the senior officer on board, a Brigadier General." (Note -The USMC Birthday is celebrated as 10 November 1775)

At 3M he held various technical and sales positions throughout OH, IN (Laura was born in Indy), MI (Linda was born in Lansing) and back in MN (I was born in St. Paul). Dad was very successful in his efforts to get states and localities to adopt retro-reflective signing strategies and thus the passion was born. He was so successful that he was sent to DC where he created a new position, that of Director of Government Relations. Dad's work included getting states to adopt reflective license plates, getting conspicuity markers into law (red & white reflective stripes on tractor-trailers, etc.) and also the "No Passing Zone" pennant sign. He was a member of and served in the leadership of various organizations including the NAWHSL, National Safety Council, Governor's Highway Safety Reps, ARTBA, ITE, Road Gang, AASHTO & IACP, just to name a few. Dad's efforts to promote "positive guidance" and "conspicuity" were less about selling products and more about a passion and a vision. Dad truly cared about highway safety and was later said to be, "On the side of the Angels." As children we remember having to pull off the side of the road so Dad could take another picture of another highway sign. Truckers on the CB would ask about the guy taking pictures on the highway. By the way, Dad's handle on Channel 19 was "Safety Man."

Dad retired from 3M in 1992 (retirement party included seeing the Redskins play the Bills in the 1991-season Super Bowl in Minneapolis) and went on to consult for various companies. He settled down a bit and joined Barrier Systems in 1997. His new passion became the QMB or Quick-Change Moveable Barrier where he worked to "increase mobility and reduce congestion for motorists." He was reunited with old friends at Barrier and was able to recruit former (retired) officials to help out. He handled about 16 states. Dad was in a stage of finally deciding to retire for good when he had his fall in May of 2004.

On 27 May 2004 at about 11:00pm Dad suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) as a result of a fall down the basement steps. Dad had recently had shoulder replacement surgery (arm still in a sling) and had experienced a few (unrelated to the surgery) dizzy spells. He was rushed to Suburban Hospital where he spent 3 weeks in a COMA in the intensive-care unit and subsequent step-down unit. He "woke up" and was discharged to a Manor Care assisted-living facility in Chevy Chase, MD for a short time before being transferred to the National Lutheran Home in Rockville, MD on 22 October 2004. During his early days at the home Dad made regular trips to physical therapy, could read words on a page, remember names, carry a limited conversation, etc. He was a favorite among the staff. He was going through a bad time in late 2005 but improved after the first of the year. During the spring of 2006 Dad started taking a turn for the worse. Dad ultimately succumbed to his devastating and permanent injuries at 7:00pm on 19 November 2006. He fought valiantly and with honor until he had no more fight left in him.

Note:

I'll take time to go back and check chronologies, names, etc. but the crux of it is all there. I'm looking forward to honoring my Dad in these pages not only because this kind of stuff is fun for me to do, but because his life story is one that needs to be documented. I would love it and be honored if you guys stopped by every now and then to see the progress but I'm being honest when I selfishly write that I'm doing all this for me (and Dad).

Enjoy some pics below. I didn't add them in the same way I usually do. You can't click on them to make them bigger and they're fairly big so hopefully you have a decent internet connection.

(If you're having trouble accessing the guestbook, try clicking here instead)

Enjoys the Photos. I'll have to add more of Dad with Laura and Linda (sorry guys). I'm starting this from my own collection.