
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 19, 1994                   TAG: 9404190123
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

ANOTHER KIPPS HAS PERFECT ATTENDANCE

When the Christiansburg-Blacksburg Rotary Club wanted to recognize 93-year-old Michael Kipps for 65 years of perfect attendance, it found, not surprisingly, that it had to have an attendance pin custom-made.

"Rotary jewelry and award suppliers don't offer an award for attendance records as long as this," said William Skelton, a Rotarian who attended a few meetings himself on the way to becoming Rotary International's president in the '80s.

Kipps, a retired agronomy professor, loves to attend meetings and has not missed a weekly Rotary meeting since he joined the club in 1930. In fact, some weeks he would attend all three of the local Rotary Clubs that meet in Montgomery County.

So this month, his home club honored him with a perfect attendance award and pin at one of its dinner meetings. In addition to his perfect attendance, Kipps served as the local club's president - just a few years ago, before World War II.

Kipps' roots run deep in Montgomery County. He and his two sisters, well-known local school teachers Mae and Florence Kipps, grew up in the family home off Prices Fork Road, part of which is a log cabin that dates back to the late 1700s.

A drive is under way by some of his sisters' former students to name the new elementary school in Blacksburg after Mae and the late Pat Kipps. The school site includes a small portion of the Kipps farm.

by CNB