Coping with Grief
We would like to offer our sincere support to anyone coping with grief. Enter your email below for our complimentary daily grief messages. Messages run for up to one year and you can stop at any time. Your email will not be used for any other purpose.
Alan K. Lipke, age 77, of Jackson passed away Thursday, May 24, 2018 at Life Care Center in Cape Girardeau.
He was born March 7, 1941, in Aurora, Illinois, son of LeRoy and Bonnie Talley Lipke. He and Sally Lenz were married June 6, 1964 at Zion Lutheran Church in Marengo, Illinois.
Alan, or “Mr. Lipke,” to thousands of St. Paul Lutheran School students, spent most of his life in a school environment. After graduating from East Aurora High School in 1959, he attended Concordia Teacher’s College in River Forest, Illinois, graduating in 1964. From there he began his teaching career in Evansville, Indiana where he taught and served as athletic director at St. Paul Lutheran School until 1966. He then became the athletic director and taught at St. Paul Lutheran School in Aurora, Illinois for nearly 13 years. In 1979, he accepted teaching and athletic director positions at St. Paul Lutheran School in Jackson where he became principal within a couple of years. For a while, he was a student and a principal and eventually earned a Master’s Degree in Elementary Administration from Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau in 1986. Alan founded the St. Paul Lutheran School Foundation and served the school for 24 years before retiring in 2003.
His first year after retirement, Alan was co-principal of Saxony Lutheran High School. He then worked several years for the Cape County Juvenile Office.
Alan was a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church and the St. Paul Men’s Club.
Loving survivors include his wife of 53 years, Sally Lipke; a son, Scott (Ashley) Lipke of Jackson; a daughter, Lisa White of Jackson; four grandchildren, Parker, Layton and Kate Lipke and Kenton White, and a sister, Diane Kollwelter Drake of Sandwich, Illinois; nieces and nephews, Mike (Carleen) Jany, Michelle Jany, Julie Valentin and Kurt Kollwelter.
He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Larry Lipke.
The visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Sunday, May 27, 2018 at McCombs Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Jackson and from 10 to 11 a.m. Monday at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson.
The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. at the church with the Revs. Jason Shaw and Eric Longman officiating.
Interment will be in Russell Heights Cemetery in Jackson.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the St. Paul Lutheran School Foundation.
To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Alan K. Lipke, please visit our floral store.