From cartographer to artist, a 33-year detour

by Carrie Moritz, Gazette

            Many people take a detour on the route to fulfilling their dreams. For Garretson High School alum Vincent "Vince" Koepp, it was a 33-year detour with the Department of Defense.

            Now that he has retired from the DoD, Koepp has been spending his days reveling in art, painting for pleasure.

            While his sonorous voice and charismatic demeanor would lead some to guess that he spent time as a radio personality, Koepp actually spent his first career in cartography, designing maps.

            After his graduation from GHS in 1964, Koepp spent three semesters at South Dakota State University to obtain a degree in commercial art. He temporarily interrupted his education by enlisting in the Navy in July 1966. The United States had entered the Vietnam War just two years prior, and it was likely his draft number would come up sooner rather than later.

            Since he enlisted, Koepp was able to essentially pick what he wanted, which meant no tours to Vietnam or the front lines.

            His enlistment lasted 26 years, with four on active duty and 22 years in the reserves, working his way to O4 Lieutenant from an E1 seaman.

            This, he said, was perfect, because after his graduation from SDSU in 1973, the Department of Defense saw his skills in art, the geography classes he took in in college, and his service record, they recruited him to be a cartographer, a job he held for 33 years.

            Koepp made aeronautical maps for pilots worldwide, designing them for defensive hot spots and other military needs.

            Quite a bit of research went into his maps, and it meant he spent a lot of time looking at other maps and satellite data, reading descriptions given by locals, and studying photographs. The end product was always a paper chart.

            “These days, pilots have these electronics, but you still need the paper. What if the equipment fails?” Koepp said.

            In that time, he had and raised two daughters, and enjoyed setting roots down in St. Louis, Missouri. Once his oldest daughter moved out of his house, though? He converted her bedroom into a studio, where he could focus on his first artistic love, painting.

            When asked how he would describe his style, he tried out a few combinations, but finally landed on “abstract realism.”

            “It’s between realism combined with an abstract influence,” he said. He loves to play with color, but begins with a subject, whether it's a barn, the particular shape of a tree, or a mountain range.

            A practiced marketing eye can see how well his work translates into commercial works, but the real paintings leave an impression on their own. There's a texture to each of his works that brings the eye to each part of it, drawing it in and creating a feeling of excitement in the viewer.

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UPDATE 6/15/23: Addition of Koepp's rank in the Navy to O4 Lieutenant.