Phil Kepner’s paternal grandparents lived a few doors away from Montview and, as a youngster visiting his grandfather, Phil attended Montview. Little did he know that he would be returning as a member.

Phil grew up in Logan, Utah, where his dad was a professor at Utah State University in Civil Engineering. Logan was a small, predominantly Mormon college town. Phil enjoyed his Scout troop, family vacations, visits to his grandparents Denver, playing football and tennis in high school, attending dances, and being an ROTC Drill Team Commander. He had a variety of jobs, but it was his work in a photo lab that triggered his interest in photography and influenced his future jobs.

Phil followed the lead of many family members in attending Ohio Wesleyan. Early in his freshman year, another freshman, Nancy Fast, caught his eye. It was a year before the two actually met and went on their first date, but they were a steady couple after that.

Phil and Nancy married after graduation, and Phil studied nuclear physics in graduate school at Ohio State in Dayton on an Air Force scholarship. The couple had a tiny third-floor apartment with a novel fire escape: a rope ladder attached to the claw foot of the bathtub. 

After graduate school, Phil received orders to go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. When the Russians launched Sputnik, Phil was asked on very short notice give a presentation to the officers about this threat to U.S. security. He went on to design and build a photo reconnaissance tracking simulator for satellites orbiting the globe. 

After three years on active duty, Phil took a job with the Space Technology Labs and he and Nancy moved to Palos Verdes, Calif. There he designed maps to track ballistic missile activity.  He later joined the jet propulsion lab at Hughes Aircraft Co. working on NASA’s Surveyor Project to land the first cameras on the moon. After 20 years in the Air Force Reserves, he retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Nancy, who passed away last October at age 90, was born and grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in education, she taught primary school in Dayton, and later at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base school.

After their move to California, Nancy was busy with their two young sons, but she also managed a cooperative preschool nursery for six years. In that role, she developed a source book of children’s art methods that was used in the Head Start schools in the Watts area of Los Angeles.  Nancy also began pursuing art. She joined the Palos Verdes Art Association and studied with teachers from the Los Angeles Art Institute.

Nancy and Phil moved to Littleton in 1968, and Phil taught physics, astronomy and photography at Arapahoe Community College for 31 years. In Littleton, their two sons grew up; Raymond is now retired from real estate and Roger retired from Boeing as a mechanical engineer.

The move to Littleton gave Nancy the opportunity to focus on art. She joined the Littleton Fine Arts Guild and experimented with different media, from oil painting to watercolor to acrylics and serigraphs. Nancy exhibited her paintings as a member of L’Assemblage, a group of nine women artists.

With the encouragement of Dusty Taylor and Cindy Cearley, Nancy entered the Illiff School of Theology in 1980 and graduated three years later with a master’s degree in clinical pastoral education. She was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA and as a board-certified chaplain. She worked as a chaplain at Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver for three years and for several Methodist and Presbyterian churches. At St. James Presbyterian Church in Littleton, she designed the church logo.  

In 1991, Nancy was elected vice moderator of the Presbytery, and Phil was elected elder moderator. It was the first time in the Denver Presbytery that a married couple were elected to leadership roles. The next year, Nancy became one of the calling pastors at Montview Church, and she and Phil joined the church. During her work at Montview, Nancy coordinated the companion ministry program.

The Kepner family and Phil’s sister and her family built a cabin in Tabernash where they loved to spend summer and winter holidays with family. Phil’s niece lived there for a while as she worked for the Forest Service to increase the osprey population. 

In retirement, Nancy enjoyed officiating at weddings and Phil often took the photographs.  Nancy and Phil traveled extensively, taking road trips to 49 of the 50 states. Twelve years ago, they moved to Windcrest. Nancy passed away in October after 68 years of marriage. She is interred in Montview’s Columbarium.

Phil credits the couple’s strong marriage and happy lives to their mutually supportive relationship and their commitment to let each other pursue independent interests and passions while enjoying time and activities together.

– Submitted by Brooke Durland