Thomas Pepper, 85, architectural renderer

Thomas Pepper, a self-employed architectural renderer, died Wednesday after battling colon cancer for more than a decade. He was 85.

Despite that fight and the loss of his first wife in a car crash, he had a sunny outlook and an ability to laugh at himself and to lift the spirits of those around him, family members said.

"He was a fighter, and he kept coming back," said his eldest daughter, Lisa Tintle of Levittown.

Pepper grew up in Far Rockaway and in Hempstead. He dropped out of high school during World War II to join the Army Air Forces, training to become a nose gunner and rising to the rank of sergeant. The war ended before he could see combat, Tintle said.

He came back home and got his high school degree and then a fine arts degree from Syracuse University. He used that to become an architectural renderer, producing illustrations of proposed building projects. Among the ones he worked on were the Vietnam Memorial at Bald Hill in Farmingville and the Veterans Memorial at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

In addition to his rendering work, he taught at New York Institute of Technology for 26 years.

Pepper had three daughters in Levittown with his first wife, Clara. In 1971, she was killed in a car crash that also left him seriously injured. He raised his three teenage girls on his own, relying in part on what they described as self-deprecating wit.

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Tintle recalled one episode years after Clara died in which he and a friend were going on a double date.

"He was never on time for anything in his life," Tintle said, but this time he was in his suit and waiting. And waiting. And waiting - for so long that he called his friend, who asked him, "Are you ready for our date next week?"

In 1986, Pepper married Betty Brandt and they moved to Oakdale, where he nurtured a collection of vintage cars, including a Packard and a Jaguar sedan. He also was a member of the Wet Paints Group, an art group, the Packard Club and the American Legion.

In addition to his wife and eldest daughter, Pepper is survived by two other daughters, Susan Pepper of Levittown and Judy Kerner of Merrick; stepson, Ronald Brandt of Smithtown; and five grandchildren.

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Services were Saturday evening at Raynor and D'Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville, followed by a private cremation.

Contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society or to the Wounded Warrior Project, 7020 AC Skinner Parkway, Suite 100, Jacksonville, FL 32256.