Charles Alexander Kemper

1919 - 2023

Charles Alexander Kemper

CHIPPEWA FALLS - Charles Alexander Kemper, age 103, of Chippewa Falls, WI, passed away on February 11, 2023 from age related health complications.

Charles was born on December 29, 1919 to Julius Kemper and Carrie (Alexander) Kemper in Baltimore, MD. After graduating from Baltimore City College at the age of 15, he earned his Undergraduate degree at Duke University - where he helped start their first LaCrosse Team- before earning his M.D. from the University of Maryland.

He began his medical career while stationed at Fort Kelly, TX during WWII. There he met his wife of 69 years, Margaret Johnson. Shortly after they met they married, and shortly after that he shipped out to Okinawa where he served as a Flight Surgeon.

Upon his return, he moved with Margaret to Boston where he studied how to read EKG's for a semester at Harvard. Then the couple moved to Wisconsin where he completed a residency at Luther Hospital in Eau Claire. Following that, he opened a private practice in Chippewa Falls as a country doctor, doing everything from delivering babies to removing gall bladders to detaching tongues from frozen metal posts.

Working fifty weeks a year, he was known to make house calls in the middle of the night and accept bird houses and fresh eggs as payment for his services. He volunteered as a team doctor for many, many years with the Chi Hi football, basketball, wrestling, and hockey teams.

Throughout his lifetime, he pursued a love of Ornithology that was sparked by his fascination with watching birds flying over the ocean during his time in the Pacific. Visitors were likely to encounter random creatures about his family home (snakes, frogs, squirrels, road runners, pigs, etc.), dead birds useful for scientific study in the kitchen freezer (an avian morgue, of sorts) and raptors needing rehabilitation in the backyard.

He donated some of his live critter rescues to zoos (including a turkey vulture to Irvine Park) and donated deceased birds to museums and universities around the country for their dioramas and scientific studies. In the 50's and 60's, he did an exhaustive study of birds killed by the tv towers, sharing his findings with the U.S. Congress; the results helped pass a law about eco-friendly placement of towers.

He founded the Chippewa Falls Wildlife Society, and coordinated countless bird watching expeditions. Over 65 years ago he started a series of four annual Audubon Christmas bird counts, a yearly expedition that is still observed. For twenty years he helped edit the Passenger Pigeon. In his retirement, he wrote a book, Birds of Chippewa Land. Serving as a volunteer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he banded over 100,000 birds during his lifetime.

He was preceded in death by his mother, father, brothers: William and Millard Kemper and his wife.

He is survived by his three children: Karen (Doug) Knight, Jon Kemper and Jean Kemper Kellogg; ten grandchildren: Mai (Paul Friedenrich) Math Kemper, Rebecca (Jason) Hoffman, Christopher (Claudia) Knight, Elissa Knight, Jacob Kemper, Sarah (Cliff) Price, Trevor (Elizabeth) Knight, Maya (Matthew) Schrader, Laurel (Derek) Rubenzer, and Kelsey Kemper; his seventeen great-grandchildren: Randy (Vonnie) Nguyen, Christina Nguyen, Diego Knight, Isabela Knight, Simon Kemper, Elizah Price, Orly Price, Asaph Price, Maximus Schrader, Elena Rubenzer, Ethan Rubenzer, Emma Hoffman, Grace Hoffman, Adam Hoffman, Anna Hoffman, Owen Hoffman and Henrik Knight; and his two great-great-grandchildren: Devina Nguyen and Rhyleigh Nguyen.

Memorial Services will be held at Christ Lutheran Church on April 15, 2023. The visitation will be at 10:00 a.m. with a funeral to follow at 11:00 a.m. Burial with military honors rendered by the Chippewa Falls Patriotic Council will be at Prairie View Cemetery in Chippewa Falls following the service.

Memorial donations can be made to the Community Foundation of Chippewa County, Living Land Endowment in memory of Charles Kemper.

Chippewa Valley Cremation Services – Celebration of Life Center in Altoona is serving the family. To express condolences online, please visit www.chippewavalleycremation.com.