It’s not the years in your life, but the life in your years. This is the theme of this week’s Feel-Good Friday.
Willis Wipf, a resident of Arizona, is a living example of dedication and passion. Despite being 95 years old, he continues to devote himself to creating handmade earrings. This craft was initially a loving gesture for his late wife, who tragically passed away in 2013 due to Alzheimer’s disease. Wipf, known for his generosity, not only puts his heart and soul into crafting these earrings but also gifts them to women free of charge.
Willis Wipf has transformed a simple hobby into a meaningful mission. With unwavering determination, he has crafted and distributed over 14,000 pairs of earrings to individuals spanning seven continents. This act of kindness and creativity has touched the hearts of many worldwide.
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) April 1, 2025
Willis Wipf, 95, doesn’t know every woman in his senior community, but they know him.
Wipf can often be found meticulously working on his creations at a local workshop. Here, he meticulously cuts rocks using a saw, shapes them into various forms such as teardrops, triangles, or diamonds, polishes them on grindstones, and finally attaches hooks for wearing. The earrings, each a labor of love, have become incredibly popular, with Wipf having gifted more than 10,000 pairs in the last twenty years.
He started making them nearly three decades ago for his wife, Joyce, when they moved to a recreational vehicle park in Mesa, Arizona. Wipf used rocks he found on driveways and roads and in streambeds and mountains.
Joyce wore his colorful earrings nearly every day until she died in 2013 after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Wipf was heartbroken over losing his wife of 59 years, and said he needed a reason to get out of bed in the morning. The lapidary workshop became the reason.
Wipf’s goal in giving his handiwork away: He wants to make a woman smile. What a different world we would have if everyone made this a daily goal. Wipf only learned how to create jewelry in his retirement. In 1994, he and his wife Joyce retired from the family’s hardware store in Freeman, SD, and moved to the Arizona RV park and resort for people 55 years and older. Their RV happened to be across the street from a lapidary workshop, so Wipf walked the short distance to the shop and dived into learning how to use diamond blades and grindstones to craft jewelry and other accessories. While he tried his hands at accessories like belt buckles and bolos, he decided to collect rocks and make earrings for the love of his life, and this is what stuck, even after she passed away:
But as Wipf grew older and struggled to stay active, he felt even more of a pull to the workshop. He’s now there at least three hours most days, crafting a pair of earrings in about two hours.
After Wipf finishes a handful of earrings, he takes them home in his pockets and sticks each earring in a bowl of salt, meant to keep them upright, on his kitchen table. He pulls out one at a time to add glue and a bell cap, which he loops a hook around twice to keep stable. He then places the earrings in a MacBook Pro box that he turned into his case.
To continue making earrings with opal – which he said costs about $800 a pound on Etsy – Wipf eschews ordering takeout food and saves his Social Security checks. Over the years, he has kept track of the number of earrings he has made by tallying his bell caps and hooks.
Wipf, who said he offers earrings to most women he sees, also mails dozens of them to his children to distribute.
And they do. Even after suffering a heart failure episode in 2023, Wipf still sticks to his schedule. He now gets around with a walker and takes the short walk from his RV to the lapidary workshop. Wipf has become such an inspiration that Phoenix’s KNXV featured his story on their program. It’s an incredible tale of hope. One of the scriptures I hold on to as I age is in Ecclesiastes 9:4. “There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.”
Keep on living and giving hope, Mr. Wipf. We are here for it.
