Frederick William Lupton II ’55

Date posted: January 2, 2014, 11:09 am

Frederick William Lupton II, 81, died on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013, at Memorial Hospital. Mr. Lupton was a native of Chattanooga, the son of Thomas Allen Lupton and Louise Carolyn Bass Lupton. He was preceded in death by his brother, Thomas Allen Lupton Jr., and by his sister, Maddin Lupton McCallie. Mr. Lupton, who overcame childhood polio, graduated from Bright School, Baylor School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (with degrees in both electrical and mechanical engineering), and from Columbia Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, with a masters of divinity degree. Although Mr. Lupton made his living as an engineer, he remained an ordained Presbyterian minister until his death. He began his engineering career with Pioneer Service and Engineering Co. in Chicago. While living there, he met his wife, Jane Adair Nicholson from Middlesboro, Kentucky, who was teaching high school English in a Chicago suburb. The two were married in 1963 and moved to Chattanooga in mid 1964, when Mr. Lupton took a position as a staff engineer with Dixie Yarns. After several years there, he worked in consulting engineering with Campbell and Associates before forming his own firm, Lupton Engineering, in 1979. During his consulting career, Mr. Lupton designed lighting, heating, and air conditioning systems for several Chattanooga landmarks, including the Hunter Museum and Erlanger Hospital. He also traveled widely as a member of a value engineering team. He received Honeywells Gold Nugget National Energy Conservation Award and was elected the Chattanooga Engineers Clubs Engineer of the Year in 1990. He belonged to several other engineering societies.

His civic interests were many and varied. Early in his professional life in Chattanooga, he became a member of the board of Senior Neighbors and subsequently the youngest president ever of that board. He became president of the local Planned Giving Council. He served on the board of YMCAs Camp Ocoee and with the United Ways Gifts in Kind program. For over 60 years, his most passionate and dedicated service was to the Bachman Academy in McDonald, Tennessee, where he served often on the board. Additionally, he was advisor to and then board member of the mission organization, Little Children of the World. As a minister, he served as a volunteer staff member of Chattanoogas First Presbyterian Church and then of Central Presbyterian Church, where he was responsible for the Southeast Tennessee Asian Refugee program, which culminated in a mass baptism in the Baylor School swimming pool. As a member of the Presbytery of East Tennessee (PCUSA), he served on various committees and helped establish the Faith and Hope Fund, an endowment for church missions. At the time of his death, he was chairing the mens breakfast group of Rivermont Presbyterian Church.

In his early 40s, Mr. Lupton began having severe heart problems, including three open heart surgeries. In 1988, when he collapsed with cardiac arrest at the National Airport in Washington, D.C., his life was dramatically saved with CPR by a then high-school senior, Eve Wachhaus. He and Eve have been in yearly contact in succeeding years, finally meeting face-to-face in 2010 at the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of Mr. Luptons heart transplant. While he was awaiting his transplant, his doctors told him to “retire or die,” so, with this clear choice, he sold his business and devoted his remaining years to charitable works. He was active in the local heart-transplant support group and the Downtown Civitan Club, consulting often with other organizations such as Habitat for Humanity. In retirement, his principal (unusual) hobby was finding useful surplus and salvage items and channeling these to non-profit agencies in need of them. He also volunteered his engineering design skills.

Mr. Lupton is survived by his wife Jane; son, Frederick Lupton III, and wife, Jennifer, and their two daughters, Emily Anne and Margaret Adair; and by daughter, Rev. Laura Louise Lupton of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Also surviving are his sister-in-law, Beth Marley Lupton, of Lookout Mountain and his brother-in-law, E. Penn Nicholson and wife, Donna of Atlanta; several nieces, nephews, and cousins also survive him.

In Freds memory, the family suggests that contributions be made to Bachman Academy, 414 Brymer Creek Road, McDonald, TN 37353; to Little Children of the World, Attn. Treasurer, P.O. Box 37, Barnesville, GA 30204; or to Rivermont Presbyterian Church, 3319 Hixson Pike, Chattanooga 37415; or to a favorite charity.