World view furthered through authorship of books

In the 1960s, John and Phyllis Kepler joined two other people in driving a Volkswagen van from Paris to New Delhi, India, in an adventure that would change their lives.

Once they crossed Europe, their three-month trek took them on mostly desert tracks, from Turkey through Iran and Afghanistan, through the Khyber Pass into Pakistan and ultimately India.

"Going into it, we were nervous and a little frightened," Phyllis Keppler recalls, "but instead, we were met with nothing but kindness."

That realization of overcoming perceived fears to understand people of different cultures became a lifelong passion that the couple would promote through books and in a variety of news publications.

"We saw the world in an unusual way," Phyllis Keppler adds.

Mr. Kepler died Sept. 8. The 23-year Inverness resident, most recently of Schaumburg, was 80.

The couple became interested in other cultures when they lived in Indianapolis. Mr. Kepler at the time served as deputy attorney general in Indiana and they regularly invited foreign exchange students to their home.

Mr. Kepler returned to the corporate world, serving as international counsel for Merck & Co., the global pharmaceutical company, before accepting a similar position with Motorola Inc., which brought the couple and their two children to the Northwest suburbs.

They joined with their Inverness neighbors, Orville and Margaret Gaither in writing their first book, "Americans Abroad: A Handbook for Living and Working Overseas."

Orville Gaither brought his background as an executive with Amoco who had worked overseas, while his wife was a psychiatric social worker. Mr. Kepler had worked and traveled abroad, and he added his expertise on international law to the book, while Phyllis Keppler, a trained journalist, had interviewed children around the world for Scholastic publications, and knew how overseas travels would affect children.

Their book was published in 1983 by Praeger, and proved to be a useful resource for the State Department, global corporations and universities, as well as Americans moving abroad.

The couple later wrote another book, with Brook Royse, called "Windows to the World: Themes for Cross-Cultural Understanding." This time they targeted their project to teachers, who could help children understand differences in cultures around the world.

"My husband always said this country was not a melting pot but a kaleidoscope," Phyllis Kepler adds. "When you look at it, different patterns evolve, because each time we interact with each other, it changes. So the key is to understand why differences exist."

The couple spent part of their retirement years living in Costa Rica and Mexico, before returning to Schaumburg three years ago.

Besides his wife, Mr. Kepler is survived by his children John and Tracy, and three grandchildren. Services have been held.