| John Cornelius Van Riper died on November 24, 1998, at Valley Hospital , Ridgewood, New Jersey, at the age of eighty-nine. He had been a member of The Holland Society of New York since 1962. Mr. Van Riper was born on December 1, 1909, in Passaic, New Jersey, son of John Terhune Van Riper and Edith Hope Hart. He was a ninth-generation descendant of Juriaen Thomassen, who emigrated to this country in 1663 on the Bonte Koe Riper’s father and grandfather , Cornelius Van Riper, were both members of The Holland Society. Mr. Van Riper was educated in the Passaic public schools and completed his secondary education at the Dwight School. He graduated in 1926 from the Stevens Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduating from Stevens, he worked for Watson Flagg Electric, an electrical machinery company in Paterson, New Jersey. Later he became associated with McGlynn Hayes in Belleville, New Jersey, where he was instrumental in developing precise gear design technology used on B-29 bomb sights. After the war, as vice-president of manufacturing, holding numerous patents, he converted McGlynn to the manufacture of precision light weight gears for civilian use, particularly helicopter transmissions. On April 29, 1931, Mr. Van Riper married Isabel Boyd Skinner in Clifton, Staten Island , New York. They had two sons and a daughter; John Cornelius, Jr., born on June 20, 1932; Edwin D. born on December 18, 1937, and Suellen, born April 15, 1940, all in Passaic, New Jersey. In the late 1940’s Mr. Van Riper formed Van Riper Engineering, Inc. a consulting engineering firm. As machinery automation rapidly gre in the 1950s, he began to design labor saving devices and machinery, including hopper feeders. During his later years his association was with Kraus Design and Wright Aeronautical, specializing in automation equipment and gear design. He was a licensed professional engineer in New York and New Jersey. Mr. Van Riper retired from his engineering practice in the late 1960s but continued to manage the Main Exchange Reality Corp., a longtime family owned business in Passaic , until his death. A Republican, he was a member of the Reformed Church. Mr. Van Riper is survived by sons John C., Jr. of Wayne, New Jersey, Edwin Derek, of Plano Texas (also a member of the Holland Society), and daughter Suellen Van Riper Oster, of Charlotte, Vermont; also by eight grandchildren and sixteen great-grandchildren. Burial was at Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, New Jersey, on December 1, 1999. 01/29/2001 ————————————————————————– Headline: OBITUARIES Publication Date: November 28, 1998 Source: The Record, Northern New Jersey Region:Bergen County Obituary: JOHN CORNELIUS VAN RIPER, 96, of Ridgewood died Tuesday. Before retiring in 1966, he was a mechanical engineer for Wright Aeronautical, Woodbridge. He was a professional mechanical engineer licensed in New York and New Jersey and associated with area firms. He was a member of the Holland Society and president of the Main-Exchange Reality Corp. A 1926 graduate of Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, he received a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Arrangements: C.C. Van Emburgh, Ridgewood. ———————————————————————————- From the Family Sheet by Mattie Bowman,Passaic County,Histoeical Society John Cornelius Van Riper-b. Dec. 1,1901 |