VIRGIL RAYMOND LIPTRAP (1907-1977)
Virgil Raymond Liptrap, my father, was born in Boswell, Indiana, on April 22, 1907. He is pictured at left in 1907 with his mother Bertha Helen Stonecypher Liptrap, his grandmother Martha Jane Highfill Stonecypher, and his great grandmother Isabel Catherine Burford Highfill
Virgil Liptrap in 1967
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Virgil with his mother Bertha and sister Iva
Virgil and his brother Ermal 1910-1914 →
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Soon after the 1914 picture was taken, both boys were stricken with polio. Ermal's speech was affected such that he stuttered. Virgil's legs were paralyzed. His growth was stunted with one leg shorter than the other and severe curvature of the spine. He was not expected to live, but through stubborn determination, walked with leg braces, and later with only a cane. He and his family lived south of Boswell, Indiana, on the Benton-Warren County line.
When Virgil was 12, a merchant in Oxford, Indiana, offered a cart and pony as a prize to the customer who brought in the most receipts over a period of time. Though he did not feel sorry for himself, Virgil was not one to overlook an opportunity. He let it be known in the community that since he couldn't run like the other boys, it sure would be nice to have that pony to get around. Using his parents' known "thriftiness" as an additional point of sympathy, he collected the merchant's receipts from nearly everyone in Boswell, and won the pony, appropriately named "Old Bunk." Pictured with Ermal on Main Street in Boswell, Indiana, in 1919.
1920 - age 13
Virgil, Ermal,
and their father
John Liptrap
about 1924.
The farm house three miles south of Boswell
1928 Graduation
Because of his physical disability, Virgil could not follow his father on the family farm. That he left for his brother Ermal. After graduating from Boswell High School in 1924, he attended Indiana University for two years, then transferred to the University of Illinois because it had a better business college. He graduated in 1928 and accepted a position at the First National Bank of Chicago, where he was a stock and security analyst specializing in public utility companies until his first retirement in 1967. He then worked at Duff and Phelps for eight more years, with the same specialty. He graduated from the Graduate School of Banking at Rutgers University in 1949.
1928 Bank Photo
1942
Virgil lived at the Lawson YMCA in Chicago, becoming a Director in 1943. He organized the Outpost for Boys and was a regular member and official scorekeeper of the Lawson softball team He was always active in the YMCA, helping to organize the Park Ridge YMCA in 1956, and later serving as one of its Directors.
He was active in the American Institute of Banking, teaching there for two years, in the Public Speaking Club and Debate Society, and was a member of the bank's Duplicate Bridge Team. He became an officer of the Bank in 1946, and He was president of the Investment Analyst Society of Chicago and organizing president of the Public Utilities Securites Club of Chicago in 1962.
Virgil was a deacon, and president of Northminster Fellowship at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, where he met Frances Matthews, originally from Crystal Springs, Mississippi. They were married November 30, 1949. And he then organized Presbyweds for "graduates" of the Northminster singles ministry.
They moved to Park Ridge in 1952, and became active at Park Ridge Presbyterian Church, where he became a deacon, elder, clerk of session, and trustee. He was active in the YMCA, Indian Guides, parent-teacher organizations, Maine South High School Music Boosters and Hawk Boosters, United Fund, and Library Board. He died, November 16, 1977, from a stroke suffered one month earlier while in the locker room of the Park Ridge YMCA. At the time he was a Lifetime Director of the Public Utilities Securities Club of Chicago, Director of the Park Ridge YMCA, member of the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago, University of Illinois Alumni Association, Lutheran General Hospital Men's Association, Park Ridge Lodge #988 A.F.&A.M., Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago, Medinah Temple A.A.O.N.M.S., and Elder and Director of Finance of Park Ridge Presbyterian Church.
1945
Virgil and Fran Liptrap had two children: James Matthews Liptrap, retired chemistry teacher in Spring, Texas, and Mary Frances Liptrap, now Mrs. Eric T Johnson, Assistant Vice President of Cole Taylor Bank in Rosemont, Illinois.
Virgil and Fran Liptrap 1949
Christmas 1951
Jim and Mary 1953
Church Directory about 1957