Henry George Zipf

grandson of Tucson pioneer, George Pusch, died peacefully at his home in Tubac on December 17, 2015, just twelve days before his ninety-ninth birthday, surrounded by the love of his beautiful wife, Ruth Tackett Zipf, who has made his later years so happy, and his children, Henry K. Zipf, Donold L. Zipf, and Lourie Ann Zipf. He is also survived by his grandsons, Nolan and Stephen Zipf. Henry was predeceased by his parents, his brothers, Walter and Frank Zipf, and his first wife, the mother of his children, Ann Lourie Zipf, the daughter of Donold Lourie, a member of the Eisenhower administration. Born in 1916 at the old Stork's Nest maternity hospital in downtown Tucson to Gertrude Pusch Zipf, who was born in Tucson in 1882, and Henry W. Zipf, a well-known early Tucson businessman and postmaster of the nineteen-thirties, Henry's life spanned the era between a Tucson which was a small ranching and mining town of 5,000 persons, and the cosmopolitan city of today. His boyhood home was just a block north of the Stone Avenue underpass, and he spent several years at his grandfather's ranches, the Steampump Ranch in what is now Oro Valley, and the Feldman Ranch, named after his grandmother, Mathilda Feldman Pusch, on the San Pedro River near Mammoth. There are still remains of many adobe buildings at the Feldman Ranch, including a chapel where a priest would come to say Mass one Sunday each month, and a large two-story adobe residence, where Henry and his brother slept on a screened porch surrounding the house, after his parents checked the area to make certain there were no rattlesnakes, which could be heard rattling under the floor. Henry has gifted his memoirs and family documents to the Oro Valley museum located at the headquarters of the Steampump Ranch. Henry graduated from Tucson High School and received a law degree from the University of Arizona. He entered the Army Air Corps in 1943, received his basic training in Texas and was stationed in the Philippine Islands during the closing months of World War II, after which he was among the first American servicemen transferred to Japan. After the war, he practiced law in Benson, Arizona, then joined his friend, Barry Goldwater, as his chief aide during Goldwater's first term in Washington, D.C. He returned to Tucson to run for Congress against another friend, Stewart Udall, who prevailed in that contest. Henry continued to practice law in Tucson until the late 1990's, counting among his law partners, Governor Raul Castro. Hank enjoyed a long and wonderful life. For many years he met monthly with a local poker playing group and also a bridge club. He was much in demand at parties and gatherings and regaled guests with tales of early Arizona and political shenanigans in Tucson history...he was personal friends with many in the ranching and business community, and local and national politics, both Democrats and Republicans, though he was a staunch Republican himself. His passing is truly the end of an era. There will be a Funeral Mass for Dad at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 300 N. Tanque Verde Loop, on Friday, January 29, 2016, at 10:00 a.m., followed by a time of fellowship in the parish hall where we may share memories of him. Arrangements by CARRILLO'S TUCSON MORTUARY.