| HIST |
Max Capper, Island of Palms Mayor, Dies --
Isle of Palms Mayor Max V. Capper
of 39 25th Ave. died Thursday at a local hospital.
The funeral will be 11 a.m. Friday at Stuhr’s
Downtown Chapel. Burial will be in Elmwood
Cemetery in DeWitt, Iowa.
Mayor Capper was born Nov. 2, 1916, in Coggin,
Iowa, a son of Oliver Cassius Capper and Mrs. Anna
Potratz Capper. He came to South Carolina more than
25 years ago following his marriage to a Sumter girl
and one last blizzard-laced winter in Iowa. The former
Iowan once told a reporter that after that winter, he
looked around the Isle of Palms and “knew right away
that was where I wanted to live.”
Capper, plant manager for Regis Milk Co. in
Charleston, entered island politics in the early 1960s
and was a town councilman for several years before
being elected mayor in 1977. A Republican, Capper
was one of the first two GOP councilmen who took
office with the late Mayor Joseph Hamer, who was
the island’s first Republican mayor.
As an elected official, Capper often was caught
in verbal crossfires that at times have characterized
island politics.Referring to some critics on council
who once called the mayor “stubborn and bullheaded,”
Capper agreed he was, but added: “It takes two to
make a fight of any kind.”
Capper was a decorated veteran of World War II.
He attended Iowa State University, was a Mason
and a member of First United Methodist Church
of the Isle of Palms.
He recently had been hospitalized after a brief
stay at home following months of hospitalization
and leg amputation. Councilman Malcolm Burgis
is acting mayor protemore of the island community.
Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Virginia Mellette
Capper; a daughter, Mrs. Marthat Capper Sparwasser
of Mount Pleasant; two sisters, Mrs Maxine C.
Matthiesen of DeWitt, Iowa, and Mrs. Ilene Mechtenberg
of Sun City, Ariz; two brothers, Leo C. Capper of DeWitt
and Leon C. Capper of San Francisco; three grandchildren. [2] |
1916 - 1980 (63 years)
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