Dr. Ivan Shepperd

Dr. Ivan Shepperd

Aug. 6, 1924 — July 21, 2018

Dr. Ivan Shepperd, long time resident of Marble Falls, Texas, died Saturday, July 21, 2018, at the age of 93. Dr. Shepperd was born in Thornton, Texas, on Aug. 6, 1924, and raised in Liberty Hill, Texas. He was the youngest child of Arthur and Ivy Shepperd and had four brothers and one sister. After graduating high school, he attended The University of Texas at Austin. While there he met and married his college crush, Virginia Wirtz from Houston. After college he and Virginia moved to Galveston where he attended The University of Texas Medical School. After receiving his medical degree, he and Virginia moved to Marble Falls, Texas, to begin his practice. He served as a family doctor there for the next 61 years. Remarkably, he never once took a sick day.

Dr. Shepperd had many hobbies and interests over the years, including raising bulldogs, photography, camping, bird watching, and gardening. He grew up listening to country and gospel music. He loved Hank Williams, George Jones, and The Weavers, to name a few. Later his socialite bride introduced him to classical music and opera, which he also came to love. Like so many Texans, he grew up in the Baptist Church, but Virginia was a devout Episcopalian and so he embraced that, too. His passion, though, besides his medical practice and the church, was the Marble Falls Rotary Club, which he helped establish in 1950.

Ivan and Virginia began their family while in Galveston, eventually raising eight children — four girls and four boys: Catherine, Elizabeth, Virginia, Margaret, Milton, Ivan, James, and John, the last two being identical twins. In addition to his eight children, he had 13 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.