Rippy returned after his heart transplant

Thirty years ago this week, a Pennville man, and his new heart, received a warm welcome home.

The Oct. 9, 1990, edition of The Commercial Review featured a story about 58-year-old Kenneth Rippy, who was returning home following his hospital stay after his Sept. 27 heart transplant.

Well-wishers stood in the rain in downtown Pennville awaiting Rippy’s arrival, with Pennville Restaurant owner Colleen Norris providing cups of coffee to help keep them warm.

As the car Rippy was riding in rounded the Indiana 1 curve on the south side of town, it was escorted by a firetruck with sirens screaming and lights flashing. Residents ran bells, waved flags and ran into the street as the vehicle made its way through town.

Rippy’s Pleasant Street home was decked out in balloons and signs welcoming him home, and neighbors and friends converged from all directions.

“I feel like a new man,” Rippy said.

He had suffered his first heart attack in 1987 and left his job at Fenter’s Boneless Beef a year later before suffering his second. He was eventually put on the transplant list.

Less than two months later, he got the call.

“We were planning a trip to Sugar Creek, Ohio,” Rippy said. “We were to leave on Friday, and on Thursday morning they called us to say they had a heart.”

It came from a 20-year-old man who had died in a motorcycle accident.

Following the transplant, doctors told Rippy he could do anything he wanted, including return to work, with the exception of lifting. But, he was thinking about staying retired.

“I don’t want to go back to work full-time,” he said. “I don’t want the stress.”