Robert Lee Hippen Jr.

HIPPEN, Jr., ROBERT LEE Dr. Robert Lee Hippen, Jr., M.D. passed away on September 4, 2008, in Portland, Oregon. He was born in San Diego, California, on August 18, 1952. Bob grew up in Mission Valley when it was a rural area outside of San Diego dotted with dairy farms, horse stables and baseball fields. He explored a place where coyotes, skunks, opossums and a European White Deer could live and browse on the hills surrounding his house. He graduated San Diego High School in 1970 where he made strong friendships that lasted his whole life. Bob attended U.C. Irvine and graduated with his bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College. He went back to school to do his premed at Cal State Los Angeles. Then he followed his father's footsteps and graduated the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1983. He became a Diagnostic Radiologist then settled in Salem, Oregon, where he practiced with Kaiser Permanente for 20 years. Bob's interests, talents and hobbies were eclectic, he was a true renaissance man. He learned to play trumpet in elementary school and that started a life long love of music. He learned to play the tuba, guitar, piano, flute, saxophone, recorder, harmonica, the ukulele, and the synthesizer. Bob was also a poet and was inspired by, among other things, his son Henry's birth. Bob made documentary films about people near him who he loved. With Henry's mother, he designed his house in Salem. He was an enthusiastically active San Diego High School alumnus. He and his friends from high school camped yearly in the Anza Borrego Desert. He also loved to hike in the forests of Oregon. Bob's more recent interests included creating "DiegoLand," a virtual city, modeled on San Diego, in cyberspace on "Second Life." Using space on "Second Life," Bob had San Diego landmarks like the California Tower in Balboa Park and the Point Loma Light House rendered so "Second Life" players' avatars could live and play in them. Stories describing "Diegoland" appeared in the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Diego Reader. He is survived by his wife, Jenny Hippen, his son, Henry Diachi Hippen, and Henry's mother, Mika Hippen. He is also survived by his sister, Linda Hippen Reynolds and her husband, Jamie Reynolds, his brother Kurt Bowling Hippen, and his wife, Gale Smith Hippen, his nieces Becky Matlock and Jenny Matlock, her husband Thomas Kashade and their son Max, as well as his nephews Will Robert Hippen and Jensen Lee Hippen and dear family friend Betty Oats. He was predeceased by his mother Dorothy Turner Hippen, his father Robert Lee Hippen M.D., his uncle, Will Hippen Jr., his uncle, Henry Turner M.D., cousin Steven Turner M.D., and dear family friend, Faye Ponder. Services will be held at First Congregational Church, 700 Marion Street, N.E., Salem on Thursday, September 11, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. The location for the reception will be announced following the Service. The family suggests that donations may be made to the "Henry Hippen Education Fund" at the MaPS Credit Union. Please send checks to: 1863 Berndt Hill Drive, South Salem, OR 97302.