Chester L. Uncapher
Chester Laird Uncapher and his wife earned dual pilot’s licenses in 1975, attending adult-education classes together in the evenings. Every summer, the couple hosted a pancake breakfast inside an airplane hangar attached to their house in Michigan, with friends either driving or flying in. They often served upward of 200 pancakes.
Mr. Uncapher died of a heart attack on June 1 while visiting his daughter’s house in East Hampton. He was 73.
Known as Chet, he was born on April 19, 1943, in East Aurora, N.Y., to Chester Uncapher and the former Sarah Zelda. In 1961, he graduated from Brookville High School in Pennsylvania. In 1965, he graduated from Clarion University in that state with a bachelor’s degree in education, later continuing his postgraduate studies at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.
He also attended the American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa., earning certificates as a chartered life insurance underwriter and as a chartered financial consultant.
In 1962, he married Patti Lindemuth, his high school sweetheart. They were together for 53 years. She survives him and lives in Zeeland, Mich.
After Mr. Uncapher’s first year of teaching in Pennsylvania, the couple moved to Michigan, where he worked as an insurance adjuster, an elementary school teacher, a high school electronics teacher, and a cameraman for a Detroit television station. He also started his own financial-planning business, which he ran for more than 30 years.
Outside of work, he was an amateur radio operator, with a special call sign of W8HA. He belonged to the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Michigan Aviation Association, and the National Rifle Association.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Andrea Nichols of Jenison, Mich., and Karen Panish of East Hampton. He leaves two grandsons, 10 nieces, and six nephews.
Hoping to continue the Uncaphers’ pancake breakfast tradition, the family has planned one for mid-July in Michigan to celebrate his life.
His family has suggested memorial donations to the Michigan Aviation Education Foundation, 22436 Mylls Street, St. Clair Shores, Mich. 48081, or the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Program, P.O. Box 3816, Oshkosh, Wis. 54903.