Edward Oppermann

1930 - 2013

Edward Belz Oppermann 83, a retired lieutenant colonel in the USAF, passed away Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, at his residence. Service: A Requiem Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Tuesday at St. Peter Orthodox Church. Internment: Burial with military honors will be at the USAF Academy Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colo. Vespers for the Departed: 7 p.m. Monday with visitation following until 9 p.m. at St. Peter Orthodox Church. Edward B. Oppermann was born in St. Louis, Mo., on Jan. 19, 1930, the son of Theodore and Marie Belz Oppermann. He graduated from high school in Trenton, Ill., attended Mckendree College for one year, and was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1949, where he graduated with distinction in 1953. He married his high school sweetheart, JoAnn Ruehrup, in Highland, Ill., on Aug. 1, 1953. He was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from the Air Force Institute of Technology with a MBA in August 1958. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Indiana University in 1965 and taught at the USAF Academy, where he retired as a tenured professor in 1973. He also served one year in Vietnam as an economics advisor. He later taught at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs and retired from the College of Business as a professor emeritus of economics and statistics in May, 1999. Ed was predeceased by his parents; his sister, Anna Marie Runge; and his son-in-law, the Very Rev. Anthony Miller. Survivors: His Wife of 60 years, Joanne; his daughter, Kimberly Miller and grandchildren, Karla, Luke and Matthew; his son, Kurt, his wife, Monica, and grandsons, Christopher and William.