George Keppel

George Everett Keppel, a Livermore resident and Lab retiree, died March 13. He was 95.

Born Oct. 29, 1914, he was one of two children of Garrett and Lucille Ellen Keppel and lived on a small farm east of Manteca. He graduated from Manteca High School in 1926.

Keppel was introduced to the machinist trade by his father while still in school. One visit to a machine shop was all it took for him to know what he wanted as a profession. While in high school, he bought his first automobile, a Model T, for $5. He soon learned the mechanics and drove it to school every day.

After graduation he worked as an apprentice at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard and lived in Vallejo. In February of 1942, he was sent to Pearl Harbor as a civilian machinist to repair damaged ships.

In 1944, he returned to Mare Island for two years. He moved to Berkeley and soon found work at the Berkeley Lab, working on the Bevetron, a particle accelerator. In 1954, he was offered a position at the Livermore Lab.

In 1966, he moved to Livermore and married Francis Hill who died in 1988.

At LLNL, he formed a new group of machinists, which later became the Precision Shop.

Before retiring in 1977, he had responsibility for final manufacturing approval for all fabrication drawings leaving his division.