Pfc. William A. Geppert Jr.

Biography and Wartime Service

William Albert Geppert was born on September 15, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Anna Marie Carberry and William Albert Geppert. William 'Bill' Geppert was a graduate of La Salle College High School and attended La Salle and Spring Garden College.

William A. 'Bill' Geppert Jr., enlisted on August 16, 1943 at Allentown Pennsylvania. He joined A Company, 331st Infantry Regiment on July 16, 1944 from the 86th Replacement Depot. While setting up an outpost in northern France on 12 August 1944, his unit came under fire. He was helping the wounded to safety when he was shot in a shoulder and a thigh. He was treated at a field hospital and then send back to England and Richmond, Verginia., before being transferred to Valley Forge General Hospital. The bullet wound had shattered his femur, and doctors wanted to amputate his leg, but his father refused to allow it, said his daughter, Annamarie Hellebusch. After 44 months recuperating, with his leg in traction for much of the time, Mr. Geppert was released at his father's insistence. The elder Geppert had suffered several heart attacks and needed his son to help run the business. Discharged in 1948 with a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, Mr. Geppert immediately began operating heavy equipment on job sites. He endured numerous surgeries, walked with a pronounced limp, and had limited motion in a shoulder, his daughter said, but never complained. 'He was resilient, outgoing, and generous,' she said.
William 'Bill' Geppert was the former chairman of the board of Geppert Brothers, a demolition firm in Colmar, Pennsylvania. Bill was charter member of the National Association of Demolation Contractors and had won the Life Time Achievement Award from the Association.

William A. Geppert Jr., died age 88 on Friday, June 29, 2012, of cancer at his daughter's home in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania. His wife, Anna Marie Blanche Geppert, died in 2000.

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