Rodney Benedict Sippel, 82, went to be with his Savior on February 11th, 2013. He was born on April 19th, 1930 on a farm in Mt. Calvary Wisconsin during the depression to Benedict and Amelia Sippel. His parents were dairy farmers and he was the third born of four children. His sister Evelyn was the oldest, then Donald, then Rodney and finally Eugene. He worked hard even as a child and started milking cows in first grade when he was expected to milk one cow before school every morning at five a.m. In second grade he milked two and in third grade three, and so on. There was plenty to keep him busy on the farm with caring for a large garden, shocking grain, cleaning out the barns and the outhouse, harvesting fruit and berries and nuts, butchering hogs, smoking meat, raising rabbits and chickens for sale and to provide eggs to the local grocery store. He still managed to get in trouble and had a large metal plate in his leg from swinging from a pulley system in the haymow and falling, something that his father had specifically told him not to do. He was in a cast from his armpits to his toes for five months when he was ten years old and his leg would bother him for the rest of his life. Rod attended a Catholic school and was an altar boy, a mischievous alter boy. His school was on a hill with a Capuchin Seminary about a half of a mile away on another hill where the parish church was located. He and his friends explored the Seminary's tunnels and bell towers and climbed as high on the walls as they dared. In 1949 he got a job on the Soo Line Railroad as a section laborer and he worked repairing sections of track until 1951 when he was drafted into the Korean War. He deployed to Korea and worked in the motorpool for the 378th Engineer Combat Battalion, Company B. He was the company electrician and he wired the tents for lights, set up the showers for the men and took care of the generators for the cooks. These duties left him with extra time to drive the mail truck, pick up a load of dynamite, or just to visit friends. Rod was awarded the Korean Service medal with 3 bronze campaign stars, the United Nations Service Medal and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation. He spent two weeks on the front lines in Korea and was honorably discharged. He was always proud of the time that he spent in the Army and was fiercely patriotic. He was an extremely active member of Brookfield VFW post 8320 for the rest of his life and spent 50 years as the post's Service Officer, which involved visiting post members in the hospital and coordinating funerals. This service was a wonderful fit for him with his wacky sense of humor and his warm friendly way of being able to talk to just about anyone. Rodney liked to be in the thick of planning post activities and was involved in the corn roasts, Easter egg hunts, and annual picnics and Christmas Parties. He involved his family too and they all have memories of boiling hundreds of Easter eggs and helping to work in the corn roast booth. In 1953 Rodney went on a blind double date to a Milwaukee Braves' baseball game. His date was a young secretary named Mary Diedrich and they fell in love and were married in 1955. At this time he was driving a cab and working as a delivery driver. Soon after this he started driving for the Greyhound Bus Company and moved with his wife and his young son David to Milwaukee. A few years later Patty was born and Larry followed four years after that. The family lived in Brookfield until 1975 when they moved to West Allis. During this time Rodney worked as a truck driver for Railway Express and later for General Fiberglass as a driver and a warehouse supervisor. He loved to talk on the CB and his handle was "Home Brew" which may have referred to the big barrel of apple cider that he often had brewing in the basement. Rodney was an involved and loving father, grandfather and great grandfather. He took his family camping every year and on many adventurous vacations. He taught all three of his children how to fish and spent many happy hours "drowning worms" as he liked to refer to it. He built swing sets and monkey bars, hung tires from trees, built sand boxes and bicycles and was always creating something with his capable hands. There was very little that he couldn't fix. He loved to play games and patiently played thousands of games of checkers with his children and later his grandchildren. He was a card player too and enjoyed poker and sheepshead and could found almost every night involved in a card game or calling Bingo at the apartment complex where he and Mary lived. He was a teller of funny stories, a player of practical jokes and he kept his family wondering what he would do or say next. He was also extremely thoughtful and would often call the loved ones in his life to tell them about a show they might want to watch or alert them to something that might interest them. Almost every time Rodney would see you he would have something special to give you or, after he visited, you might find a little something that he left as a surprise for you. He enjoyed working with wood and he felt that one of the best gifts that he was ever given was a scroll saw, which he used to make many wooden decorations through the years. He spent many happy hours working in his wood shop creating things to give to others. Rodney is survived by his wife Mary, his oldest son Dave and his wife Joanne, and their sons David Jr. and his wife Lindsey, and Bradley and his wife Stephanie; his daughter Patty Baker and her husband Jeff and their children Ali and Miranda, and his youngest son Larry and his wife Lois and their children Lyndsey and Nathan. He is also survived by his precious great grandchildren David III, Olivia, and Lilly who brought many smiles and hours of joy in his later years. We will all miss him.Visitation:Mary Queen of Heaven Catholic Church, 2322 S. 106th Street, West AllisService:Mary Queen of Heaven Catholic Church, 2322 S. 106th Street, West Allis