Mr. Depp joined the United States Navy in 1942. He spent World War II in the Submarine Service in the Pacific. Twenty-one years of Naval duty in Communications/Security took him and his family to Japan, Turkey, Washington D.C., and several of the United States. In 1963, after he had bounced the first Navy experimental satellite message off of the moon, and participated in the Naval blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he retired from the Navy. He spent the next 20 years at Honeywell International, as an inside sales and electronics engineer/troubleshooter industrial controls technician. After retiring from Honeywell, he worked for George T. Hall Company, from which he retired at the age of 83.
The Depp Family moved to Mission Hills in 1963, and became active in the community at the San Fernando Mission where Mr. Depp was a docent for student groups who toured the Mission in their study of California History, as well as serving as a reader, Eucharistic Minister, or Usher at the Sunday Masses. He was a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus in the San Fernando Council, where he assisted at the Papal Visit in 1987, and other community benefits performed by the K of C throughout the years. He was a consistent benefactor of the Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and those in the Diocese of San Bernardino where he was awarded the Elizabeth Anne Seton Hope Award in 2006.
His three children, Dr. Mary Beth Blackett, Mrs. Nancy Blackwood, and Mr. Richard James Depp, and their spouses, survive Mr. Depp, as do 7 of his 9 grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren. A ten-year-old granddaughter, Aimee, preceded him to heaven in 1982, and a sixteen-year-old grandson, Ryan, in 2010. Mr. Depp's adored wife, Mary, succumbed to the consequences of a major stroke in 2004.