JUERGEN W H SUMPF (1947- 1992)

Juergen Sumpf was born in Germany on Dec. 4, 1947. In 1955, his family left for the United States. They landed in New York and went on to Detroit where their sponsor was. After a year in Michigan, they moved to the Kensington area, and eventually to Hatboro in the mid-sixties.

In high school he was a talented soccer player, receiving all-Buxmont honors as a senior.

Juergen was drafted into the Army in 1967, and served 2 years in Vietnam. He returned having attained the rank of Sargent.

In a 20^th reunion update in 1986, he had graduated from West Virginia Tech, married Donna, and had two daughters- Nicole and Danielle. His hobbies then included chess, cooking, and of course, soccer.

The family lived in West Virginia for 6 years, where Juergen taught drafting in the local high school. He loved teaching and his students loved him.

He also started a soccer league outside of the school, as there were no outside sports at the time. This was the first and it still continues today. All of the kids wanted to play and loved it. Many of the families didn’t have enough money for their children to play, but Juergen always found a way… even if he had to pay the fee himself. He did a great job for the county where they lived, and most important, a great job for those kids.

They briefly ran a private club in a different part of the state, but that did not work out for them. They moved back to Lansdale, where he became very sick, and passed away on October 7, 1992 at the age of 44. His ashes were put into the ocean, per his wishes: “that way I may end up back in Germany, where I was born”.

 His daughters were just 13 and 16 at the time of his death. There are now two grandchildren- Madison (19) and Justin (15). Both daughters and both grandkids played soccer. Justin currently is on the Deep Run Sports traveling soccer team.

Many thanks to Donna Sumpf for the information and pictures she supplied. In her letter she always referred to him as “Juergen”, rather than “Jerry” as we knew him in high school. I have chosen to do the same.