Michael "Mike" James Keppler

Michael James Keppler passed away on December 28, 2020 surrounded by family in Creswell, Oregon. He was born July 6, 1954 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota to Leroy and Joyce (Paulley) Keppler. He married Peggy Adams in March 1975. They had two sons and a daughter before moving to Oregon in 1984. Mike worked in powerline maintenance for nearly 40 years. At 18, he began working for Judd Welliver at Lake States Tree Service (1972-1982), Utility Tree Service from 1984-1987, he worked for Lane Electric Co-op from 1987 until his retirement in 2012. He was an avid outdoorsman. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, and trapping. Thru trial and error along with the S. Standly Hawbaker’s 1965 book “Trapping North American Furbearers” he taught himself to trap. Yet he was not afraid to get advice from experts, such as Game Warden Russ Johannsen (MN & WI Trapper’s Hall of Fame) when he was 10 years old and Dave Vann (OR Trapper’s Hall of Fame) when he was in his 50’s. In 2002, he helped Dave Vann live trap civets for an episode of British Broadcasting Corporation’s science show “Weird Nature”. His motto was “die with memories, not dreams.” In 1999 he began traveling the world with a missionary trip to Kenya and on to sightseeing in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Fiji, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, and South Africa. Some favorites were hunting plains game in South Africa and birds in Argentina. He is survived by his wife; children, Chris (Katy); Ben (Angela); and Kelly (Jason) Rowlett; honorary children Keith Lopez and Samantha Apodaca all of Oregon; 7 grandchildren and 1 great-grandson, his mother of Grand Rapids, MN; sisters Rita (Warren) Malcolm of Bovey, MN and Deb Kongsjord of Nevada; and brother, Harley of Grand Rapids, MN.