He Will Forever Be Missed

Doc Cropper

1944

2022

Remembering Doc

This site was created in memory of Doc (Kenneth) Cropper, our one-of-a-kind, soulful, loving father, friend, and physician.

Story

Born in Fort Worth, Texas

October 10. 1944

Doc (Kenneth) Ross Cropper, M.D.

(1944 - 2022)

Kenneth (“Doc”) Ross Cropper was born October 10, 1944, in Fort Worth, Texas, to Doris and Dale Cropper. Kenneth was the second of three sons (Michael Dale Cropper, 1941– 2022 and Tommy Cropper).

Kenneth was a very active youngster who loved to explore. He built model airplanes, designed and built a skateboard, and studied the natural world. Using money he earned during summers, he built a 16-foot boat that the family used to water ski for 25 years.

He played many sports, was the smallest letterman in football at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, built his own pole-vaulting set, and won the city’s varsity pole-vaulting championship in 1962 and 1963.

He entered the University of Texas in 1962, graduating in three years. In 1965, he began his medical studies at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston Medical School and earned his M.D. in 1969.

In 1971, Doc was drafted into the military at the end of the Vietnam War. After completing flight surgery school at Brooks Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, he served as head of flight surgery for two years at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas, and achieved the rank of Major.

In 1975, he started his private practice in Lake Jackson, Texas practicing a combination of Dermatology and Family Practice until 1987.

Doc loved exploring and photographing the wilderness. In his 4x4, explored all along the gulf coast, from Brownsville, Texas to Key West, Florida, often with one of his dogs - Maxi or Spot - and his photography buddy and dear friend, Tommy Jones.

He always felt a special kinship with wolves and noted seeing them five times during his outdoor adventures. He also came as close as 100 yards from a wolf, in the Texas Gulf marsh, and recalled this as being a profound experience for him. Being outside, near the ocean and marsh - with all their wild creatures - brought out the wild nature of this complex man.

In addition to being a talented photographer, Doc was also a prolific writer, producing several hundred poems, including three bound books (“Down and Out,” “The Maxie Chronicles,” “Between the Lines: Poetry of a Madman”) and a collection of short stories: “A Short Book about the Future of the Virtual Tours Industry.”

Doc was a deeply loving Father to his two daughters. Weekly, and sometimes daily, he posted hand-written letters to them. He called them with this same consistency. He taught them how to be in nature - how to stand still in its silence and feel its inherent magnificence - respect its knowing as that far greater than man’s. …He engendered in his daughters a love of science, truth, and the questions: “how” and “why.”

He unabashedly expressed his love for his daughters, for wildlife, for the beauty of honed and perfected shape and form. …He was consummately “real,” offering a constant point of aspiration for his daughters in this way as in many. …He taught his daughters how to survive, how to heal their wounds, how to think for themselves, how to love truly. He built into them the rhythms of deeply reverberating music and the humbling resonance of powerful ocean waves. He called into them peaceful seagull sounds, caressing sunshine, and the free-flying felt-sense of a soaring hawk.

In 2022, a few months before Doc's death, he celebrated 29 years of sobriety with Alcoholics Anonymous sponsors and friends.

His soul is one for the ages and his daughters honor him with these attempted articulations and with their endless love.

He is survived by his two daughters, Claire and Emily Cropper, and by his younger brother, Tommy Cropper.

For those who wish to honor Doc, he has asked that we include the following links for donation options...

VA CELEBRATION OF LIFE

The first event is the internment ceremony with military honors at the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, on Friday, May 19, at 10:15am. (Please find further details below.)

The cemetery runs a tight ship, so unfortunately, there will not be time to invite guests to speak. However, a casual lunch to celebrate Doc will be held, following the ceremony. During lunch, any and all sharing about Doc and each other is more than welcome!

Please let us know, via response to cacropper@gmail.com or phone call to Claire (443-467-8352), if you plan to attend. If we don’t hear from you, we’ll assume you’re not able to attend.

Thank you all for your love and prayers and for the beautiful friendship you have all demonstrated to our Father and ourselves. We are forever truly honored and grateful, as is our Father.

Details of EVENT #1 - Internment and ceremony with military honors

Friday, May 19th, 2023

10:15am internment scheduled at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery

1520 Harry Wurzbach Rd, San Antonio, TX 78209

there is only one entrance to the cemetery at this address

Shelter #3 - where everyone meets

see attached map

drive through entrance gate; stay on main road for 3 blocks; turn right at shelter-#3 sign

plenty of parking on either side of the road near shelter #3

If you’d like to deliver flowers, please have them delivered no earlier than 10:15, so that preceding ceremony is not interrupted; only one bouquet may remain after ceremony; use plastic containers only, please

If you’d like to offer a donation in honor of dad, three nonprofit options are listed on his memorial website: https://krcmemorial.wixsite.com/info

10:15 arrival, parking, gathering at shelter #3

10:30 - 11:00 a.m. all internment events at shelter #3

5 minutes - brief opening by military

10 minutes - military honors (rifle salute and taps)

10 minutes for clergy and/or family members to honor/speak

5 minutes - brief conclusion by military