IN MEMORIAM: Dennis O. Rippeon

IN MEMORIAM

It is with profound sadness that WANADA reports the untimely passing of Dennis Rippeon of Ourisman Automotive. He died Wednesday of this week at the nursing home where he had been receiving care since last winter as a result of a rare, but terminal brain disorder with which hed been stricken in 2008. He was 62.

A career automobile business executive and Washingtonian, Dennis was an officer and pivotal operations man in the Ourisman organization, working closely with his partner, Bobby Ourisman, at the Rockmont Chevrolet location in Rockville Md.

Dennis Rippeon started in the automobile business in 1969 at Woodfield Ford in Gaitherburg, Md. after graduating from the University of Maryland, College Park. From there, he spent a number of years with Chevy Chase Chevrolet in Bethesda, Md., later going to the King Automotive Group in Gaithersburg, Md. He had been with Ourisman Automotive since 1991.

Dennis held leadership positions in any number of dealer line group organizations in the metropolitan area and served on the National Chevrolet Dealer Advisory Board from 1996-2006. He served on WANADAs Board of Directors from 1994-2006 during which time he held officer positions, to include presiding as WANADAs Chairman in 2004 and 2005.

Before becoming incapacitated, Dennis was honored with the Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award (TMQDA), which he was in attendance to receive at the 2009 NADA Convention in New Orleans last February.

Funeral arrangements are through Pumphrey Funeral Home in Rockville at 300 West Montgomery Avenue (20850) where the family will receive visitors on Monday, November 9, between 3 and 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. A funeral service is scheduled at 10 a.m. the following morning, Tuesday, November 10, at Darnestown Presbyterian Church, 15120 Turkey Foot Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20878, with interment at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, 13801 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring MD 20906.

Contributions to his memory may be sent to the Need Based Scholarship Program, University of Maryland College Park as follows: UMCP Foundation, Office of Gift Acceptance, 4511 Knox Road, Suite 205, College Park, MD 20742.

To Dennis wife Priscilla, sons Brandon and Benjamin and the rest of his family and many friends, WANADA extends its sincerest sympathy.