Obituary of Clifford Vernon Lochhaas

Clifford Vernon Lochhaas (Kip) was called Home on Saturday, 11 March 2023, at the age of 95, to be with his Savior, our Lord Jesus. He was preceded by the wife he dearly loved, Elizabeth (Betty) nee Zimmermann, who was called Home on 19 February 1994. In thirty years he never remarried. He was also preceded by his mother and father, Albert and Henrietta, and all of his siblings; his older sister Alverra (Sue), his older brother Leland (Lee) and his younger sister Lavern (Bunny). He is survived by his five children, ten grandchildren, and two great grandchildren, they are; Mark (Joyce Hammond, died 2019) and their children Stephen and Ruth, Jacquelyn (James Gerlach) and her children, Eric (Alexandra Dysinski, ex-wife) and Kevin (Andrew Bennett), and Eric’s children Kyla and Vanessa, Mari (Kenneth Fliszar) and their children, Elizabeth and Rachel, Ann (Keith Hartwig) and her children Zachary and Elizabeth, and C. Jonathan (Amy Prussing) and their children Henry and Evangeline. Clifford was born on 15 February 1928 in his parent’s home on Grupp Road in Des Peres, Missouri, on the western outskirts of St. Louis. He graduated from Valley Park High School, in Valley Park, Missouri, in 1945 as the Valedictorian. He was drafted into the Army of the United States in April 1946 and honorably discharged in May 1947. Perhaps the memory of the Army he most enjoyed was playing in the Army band at Camp Stoneman outside of San Francisco. In 1948 he enrolled at Concordia Lutheran Teachers College in Seward, Nebraska. He graduated in 1950 with an Associate Degree in Elementary Education and began serving the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod as a teacher and principal in various locations including Ellisville, Missouri, St. Ann, Missouri, Red Bud, Illinois, and Cincinnati, Ohio, between 1950 and 1965. On 29 November 1950, while teaching at St. John’s Lutheran School in Ellisville, Missouri, Kip married his beloved Betty whom he called “Super”. He completed his Bachelor Degree in Education at Concordia, Seward in 1963, and completed his Master Degree in Special Education at the University of Cincinnati in 1966. He served as the Project Director for the Learning Problems Project for the Cincinnati Board of Education from 1966 to 1967. He became an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York College at Buffalo in 1967, where he served until he retired in 1992. He became the Chairman of the Department of Learning and Behavioral Disorders in 1975 and earned his Doctoral Degree in Education in 1977. He became a Full Professor in 1980 and served as the Chairmen Pro-Tem for Exceptional Education from 1991 to 1992 when he retired. In retirement he also served in many volunteer capacities including at his church, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Buffalo as a Council member and in many other capacities, and also on the Iroquois School Board in Elma, New York, and for the Literacy Volunteers for which he developed a training program for tutors. He passed comfortably in his independent living duplex cottage in the Heritage Retirement Village in Gerry, New York, being comforted by his wonderful caregiver, Robbin. The memorial service will be held at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 2131 Woodard Rd, Elma, New York on Saturday, 12 August 2023 at 2:00 PM. Memorials can be sent to: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church 1080 Main St Buffalo NY 14209