Infamous Northern VA exotic animal dealer/breeder obit
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Green's 'Animal Underworld']
http://www.timescommunity.com/site/tab5.cfm?newsid=16129373&BRD=2553&PAG=461&dept_id=511692&rfi=6
Jack Crippen, 'Dr. Doolittle' of Great Falls, dies at 77
By Beverly Crawford <<bcra...@timespapers.com>>
02/15/2006
Jack Crippen had a soft heart for animals and children. He died Feb. 9
at the age of 77.
Jack Crippen, a Great Falls original whose lifelong love for animals
enriched his community throughout his life, died of pneumonia Feb. 9
at Reston Hospital after a week-long illness. He was 77.
Crippen was a colorful iconoclast who loved children and animals and
took pride in the jobs he created with the landfill he named the
"Stump Dump" on Utterback Store Road in Great Falls.
Among the construction debris he disposed of there are most of the
tree stumps removed when the community of Reston was built, the bulk
of Reston's old Bowman whiskey distillery, and the charred wooden
remains of the original structure that was Wolf Trap. All were buried
in Crippen's landfill, which became the highest point in Fairfax
County after a hill at Tysons Corner. From its peak, the Washington
Monument is visible on a clear day.
At his death, Crippen was working on a plan to recycle the contents of
the landfill he owned near I-95 in Dumfries for office and commercial
use. That would help to build a tax base for the community, he
believed.
His wife said she will carry on his work through the family business,
Potomac Recycling. "It's a little frightening" to think about taking
over the recycling project, she said, but "he assembled wonderful
people around me."
Sandy Crippen was a former third-grade teacher in Annandale and
longtime supporter of the Great Falls Republican Women's Club. "Jack
was like 25 little 8-year-old boys all going in different directions,"
she said. "I had the whole classroom in Jack."
As Fairfax County developed, Crippen chafed under its burgeoning
bureaucracy and delighted in flouting the zoning ordinance that
eventually forced him to close the Stump Dump after numerous
complaints from neighbors, citations and fines. Ultimately, he was
charged and found guilty of contempt for refusing to comply.
But Crippen was an irrepressible entrepreneur who operated from
instinct to develop his business and pursue his passionate love for
all kinds of animals. As a boy, he trained his goats to pull small
wagons for children, then sold them as pairs, his wife said.
He developed Lake Fairfax on family land and later sold it to the
county, including the miniature train that had delighted thousands of
children. Years later, he bought it back and donated it to the
Arlington Assembly of God.
"He was truly thrilled. He knew children were going to be happy
[again] and that was why he had it," said Richard Neubauer, the church
pastor.
Crippen founded the Fairfax Hunt in a modest log clubhouse next to
Lake Fairfax in Reston. He loved to steeplechase and was a founder of
the Virginia Gold Cup in The Plains.
He bought, flew and later sold several helicopters, arriving in one at
an outdoor garden party given by Fairfax Hunt president Randy Rouse as
the downdraft from the rotor blades sent newly mown grass spinning
through the air, Sandy Crippen recalled.
He also developed Lockmeade subdivision at the intersection of
Springvale Road and Georgetown Pike.
Crippen loved children and animals and worked his whole life to bring
them together as often as possible. "He thought every child should
have an animal," his wife said.
He created the "Pet a Pet" farm at the southeastern corner of Hunter
Mill Road and Baron Cameron Avenue and still leases the property as a
small suburban zoo. An elephant, monkeys and other exotic animals have
lived there through the years.
He enjoyed taking his animals out for rides in his car, and the
upholstery in his Escalade still shows a rip from a bear's claw.
"He would pull up to the bank drive-through and have the chimpanzee
put the cash envelope in the drawer," Neubauer said.
In the early 1990s, Crippen dressed as Santa Claus and rode one of his
camels into the Childhelp, U.S.A. "village" at Christmas in
California, according to his wife.
For years, Crippen provided cute, pettable stable animals for the
annual tree lighting at Village Centre in Great Falls, a tradition he
established and continued with two close friends, Robert Moore and
Gary Shmitz.
Crippen also raised exotic pets at the former Stump Dump, now called
Lockmoor Farm. He believed animals should run free and provided space
where they might. His animals were happy and healthy, reproducing to
raise more, Sandy Crippen said.
Crippen acquired his first llama from Arthur Godfrey, a 1940s radio
personality who grew wealthy with the advent of television in the
1950s. Godfrey once lived on Route 7 adjacent to the Crippen family
property. One of Godrey's two llamas died from a barnyard injury
inflicted by a horse, and he gave the other animal to Crippen.
He later acquired camels, Watusi cattle, buffaloes, Japanese koi,
trout, kangaroos, chimpanzees, goats, sheep, miniature burros and
other animals to add to his menagerie at Lockmoor. Many were named for
friends, such as "Preacher," a pot-bellied pig named for Neubauer.
Crippen graduated from Herndon High School, attended a military
academy and Virginia Polytechnic Institute briefly, and then bought a
herd of Holsteins to start a dairy farm.
Both of Crippen's grandfathers owned land that influenced the
development of Great Falls and Reston, long before either community
bore those names, Sandy Crippen said. His maternal grandfather, Joseph
Marshall, owned most of the land on both sides of Hunter Mill Road.
Lock Crippen, his paternal grandfather for whom he is named, was
locally renowned as an auctioneer who kept farmers entertained on
Saturdays and helped raise money to build the Colvin Run Schoolhouse.
Crippen acquired his skill as an auctioneer, also using it to help
local causes. He was the largest contributor to help preserve the Old
Schoolhouse in Great Falls. His wife, through her women's group, was
instrumental in that effort.
In addition to his wife, of Great Falls, Crippen is survived by a son,
Mack "Lock" Crippen III, of Reston; a daughter, Martina Wiegand, of
Bethesda; and six grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Feb. 13 at Vienna Presbyterian Church. The
family requests that memorial contributions be directed to Childhelp
Virginia, 8415 Arlington Blvd., Fairfax VA 22031.