Edward Tipper

Edward Joseph Tipper Jr. (3 August 1921 – 1 February 2017) was a paratrooper in Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 101st Airborne Division, United States Army during World War II. Tipper was one of the 140 original Toccoa men of Easy Company. Tipper was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by Bart Ruspoli. Information about Tipper was featured in the 2009 book We Who Are Alive and Remain.

Early life Tipper was born in Detroit, Michigan on 3 August 1921 to Lucy (McCormick) and Edward J. Tipper. The younger Tipper’s parents were both immigrants from Ireland, and the family moved back to Ireland when he was three years old, but returned to the United States later. Tipper graduated from a Detroit school in 1939 and worked at a department store.

Military service After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tipper tried to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, but was rejected because of an overbite. Tipper received further training with Easy Company in Aldbourne, United Kingdom.

Tipper made his first combat jump into Normandy on D-Day, where he met with fellow Easy Company member Frank Mellet and some other paratroopers and engaged in a firefight with a German patrol.

Tipper attended the University of Michigan and completed his master's degree in English at the University of Northern Colorado, and became a teacher. When Tipper was sixty one, he met Rosy (who was then thirty four) and they were married on 12 February 1983. Their daughter Kerry Christina Tipper was born ten months later.

Tipper died on 1 February 2017 at the age of 95.