Thomas D Copeland

Thomas D. Copeland, age 83 of Crystal, North Dakota passed away on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at his home near Crystal. A Memorial Mass will be Monday, June 17, 2013 at 3:00 P.M. at St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Crystal. Visitation will be Sunday from 1-2 PM with a rosary service at 2:00 P.M. at the church. Inurnment will be at St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Crystal, North Dakota This story begins in Lakewood Ohio, on June 6th 1930. The world gets its first glimpse of Thomas Dalton Copeland of English/Scottish decent, born to Ashfield Baker Copeland (Father deceased) and Mildred Dalton (Mother deceased). He lived here for a number of years with his three brothers the eldest Charles R. (deceased) then his younger Brothers David (living), and finally Austin (deceased). Young Tom was a very "active" child and without a moments hesitation would take off running, so as a child he was tied to a tree using a long leash. After their mother passed their father met and married Alice Miller and along came Hope-Elizabeth his step-sister and right below him in age. They later moved to Nassau, NY. As with most families of that time post depression money was always tight, so at a young age he went to work and attended school, his list of childhood jobs included gardener, soda-jerk, and he even worked for a German home builder roofing. By the time he was 17 though his world would be rocked and turned upside down for into his life walked a mere willowy wisp of a young redheaded girl named Isabelle Dolan. Little did he know then that 66 years later the soon to be love of his life would be his loving and devoted wife and mother to his three children. He entered the Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy after high school, graduating from there in 1953 with a degree in mechanical/marine engineering. He married the one and only Love of his life after his first year of schooling. Prior to his marriage he secretly attended the classes necessary to be converted to Catholicism, as a wedding present to his soon to be young bride and recent Graduate of Nursing School. Surprising her one Sunday by taking communion, this is a sin if not a catholic and not confessed. This caused such horror in his young bride to be that she herself forgot to take communion. Upon exiting the church she confronted him and he calmly explained his wedding gift to her, much to her delight. And they married on August 10th 1951 with full honors due a Naval Reserve officer. He spent the next 4 years running around the world delivery cargo in Naval Reserves as a Licensed Watch Engineer having the rank of Ensign operating the main and auxiliary propulsion systems on large freighters visiting places such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, and many other European countries; often bringing home small gifts to his young bride that his meager pay would allow. The next great event came into his life, with birth of his first child and daughter Mary-Louise Copeland on 23 February 1954 in New York City, NY. After his time in the naval reserves he joined a company named Carrier Air Conditioning Company and continued his education with them and becoming an expert in Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning systems for them. During this time another great event happened; the delivery of his second child and daughter Patria-Ann Copeland on 7 December 1958. He began to contribute to his community at this time serving as the President of the United States Merchant Marine Academy Alumni Association for one year. There is a funny story that happened during this time, Thomas had an accident and broken his back and was confined to bed in a full back brace. Well as it happens there was a fire in the house started on the stove and his wife got all of the children out of the house and had them at the designated tree, when one of the local firemen approached her and asked "Isabelle are you sure everyone is out of the house?" and in a rather irritated voice "OF course don't you see the children under the apple tree!", for she was thinking why are you asking me this instead of fighting the fire, the firemen said "I only ask because we think we hear yelling coming from your house." After a moment's pause the realization of what was happening hits young Isabelle and she blurts out "Oh My God, Tom is up there in a full back brace and can't get out of the bed upstairs!" needless to say they were able to control the fire and he was fine. The company he worked for changed hands and grew through mergers and so did his role within the company going from Application engineer to Sales Engineering coordinator. He then changed companies to Worthington Corporation where he began as the Officer Engineer later becoming a Field Engineer with over sight of many other engineers in the air conditioning field. His final position with Worthington Corporation was as the District Engineer for all of the New Jersey and Philadelphia districts and supervising and supporting all of the engineers beneath him. It was during this time he moved his family to Jackson Township NJ and his final surprise happened and almost 8 years after his second child came along his Son James Riley Dolan Copeland born on 1 July 1967. In 1970 he returns from work only to be greeted at the front door by a new dog which just happens to be a Great Dane, that when on its hind legs was taller then him, that was unbeknownst to him prior to its arrival, that a close family friend had rescued, this of course was a great shock to him. This would not be the last time he would return home to find a new dog or cat, he would groan and gripe but in the end to please his wife and children he usually gave in. It was also here that he truly became active in his community dedicating countless hours to the Board of Education for Jackson Township for 10 years even serving as the president for one. This venue gained him the nickname "The Man with the pipe" which he would huff and puff when agitated looking more like a train. He was instrumental as the first President in the creation and founding of the Parent - Teacher - Student Association in Jackson Township, NJ. In 1977 he also had the distinct pleasure as one of his functions as President of the Board of Education to hand his daughter Patricia (a.k.a. Trish) her diploma. He is also becomes very active in the Jackson Players group building sets for plays and operating the vending stand during football season. As time goes on his children grow up as children are prone to do and in 1978 his first born Mary-Louise is in New York City away at college and is lucky enough to meet the love of her life Glenn Michael Johnson who goes on with his education to get his doctorate in Psychology. Well needless to say there was fun and merriment galore during the wedding with 12 cases of champagne being consumed and he and his new son-in-law ended up holding each other up. This was in part thanks to his son James and his son's friend Paul Berkowitz with the help of another slightly older kid named Glenn Edwards they kept all the glasses full while popping every cork on to the tent covering the dance floor. Well the following day the rental company comes to gather the tent and dance floor from the backyard only to driven back by an avalanche of white plastic corks from all the champagne consumed. It took several minutes for everyone to stop laughing at the expressions of the poor rental guys whom were the unfortunate and unintentional victims. Shortly after that his daughter Trish joined the Air Force and is off to boot camp and within two years meets the Love of her life giving up her military career to marry a young ambitious airmen William Wade (who holds four degrees and working on his MBA) who goes on to complete a full tour of thirty years in the Air Force and attaining the rank of Chief Master Sergeant before retiring. During this time they provide him his first Grandchild Victoria Jean Wade, followed by Thomas Patrick Wade and Glenn Michael Wade. Shortly after that he moved to Stevensville Maryland in 1978 to take a position of Project Engineer still with Worthington Corporation working with the defense department repair facility with his Wife and Son. He joins St. Christopher church on Kent Island in MD, becoming a founding member and president of a new Chapter of the Knights of Columbus and President of the Fourth Degree Chapter. He had many crazy brothers in the knights to include the three Joes these three grown men would drive him to total distraction at conventions doing crazy things like jumping from one hotel balcony to another balcony for the chapter room parties, the main problem was they were often 4-5 stories off the ground. But while a knight in this parish he and his brother knights to include his son also fed the poor raising enough money to feed 50-60 needy families on special holiday's a full meal based on the number of members, other times they would purchase FDA issued cheese, milk, bread by the truck full and distribute to the poor, helped the homeless, and many other worth while causes. He became a driving force behind many of these activities helping the young men of the parish become better Christians by leading them, mentoring them, advising them, and acting as an example of what it means to live as Christ wanted us to. He also continued to be active with his son's school activities such as play set making, homecoming float designs, and other assorted activities. He on more then one occasion opened his home to those in need providing shelter and safety to those in need of it. He continued like this until around 1987 when his company merged with Dresser and Ingersoll Rand Corporation to form Dresser-Rand Company which he was a Consulting Sales Engineer this last another couple of years until his division was shut down as part of down sizing. He and his wife then decided to go visit with their daughter Mary-Louise in North Dakota and came to like the area finally moving here when he received a position with Neppel Engineering Incorporated, He and his wife, and son, back from the first active army stint of two years, then moved to Grand Forks North Dakota. While with Neppel he did the HVAC and mechanical designs for many of the buildings and walkways for University of ND. He alone designed the entire mechanicals system for the Earth Systems Science building at UND. It was here the last of his children met their spouse, his Son James married Patricia Gerda Jorgenson on 25 January 1991 and his son left the Army reserves to reenlisted to active duty taking his new bride and his next grandchild Tianna Marie who was his son's step daughter as well as the one on the way to Oklahoma. While stationed in Oklahoma they had his next two Grandchildren, Robert Thomas Dalton Copeland in 1991 and another Grandson in 1993 named Riley James Dolan Copeland. He entered into his first retirement when Neppel went under and things were progressing nicely until 1997 when the Red River decided to float them further north rather involuntarily. This transplanted them to Cavalier ND for about a year before finding a home in Crystal ND. During this time he came out of retirement to work for MCI a bus builder solving the natural gas design issues that would appear after sometime in service. He remained at this position for a couple of years before deciding to retire yet again at the age of 70. well this was not to be the case Thomas was not one to sit around and applied for the position as Assistant Post Master for the Crystal only working 2-3 days a week he did this for a couple more years until his good wife insisted that he REALLY retire for good this time. So he became very active in St. Patrick's Catholic Church, becoming a Eucharistic minister and would serve communion to the local elderly and those unable to attend regular mass, he would put his extensive talents as a painter to work making up banners for the various holidays, would clean the church with the help of his wife Isabelle, served on the building committee utilizing his extensive knowledge of mechanical to ensure the church additions were being built correctly. He remained very active even after being diagnosed with liver cancer this continued until late May of this year when the treatments and the cancer kept advancing final forcing him into the hospital and finally into hospice at home where for over a week he continued to struggle with his ailments finally succumbing on June 13th around 1:50 in the afternoon, having slip into a very peaceful and painless sleep about 5-6 hours earlier never to wake Some things about Thomas many may not know, for he was not always the most approachable looking man, and especially when building something he could let loose a stream of words capable of twisting a screw driver into a cork screw and it was always at some poor inanimate object never at a person. His skill as an artist was very enviable either with oils or acrylic paints having produced as many as dozen or more artworks and dozens of banners for various churches. He gave blood often from a very early age occasionally before he was supposed to since not enough time had elapsed. He was an avid Publisher Clearing House submitter never missing a drawing. He gave freely of his time to assist neighbors, family, and friends to build multiple decks, repairing and replacing of roofs, hanging wall paper which he was a master of matching up the light plates to fit exactly into the pattern. He excelled as an electrician, carpenter, plumber, roofer and general all around handyman. But he did have one weakness and his kryptonite was ride on lawnmowers he could take any brand age or size mower and just kill it, something about the small engines just eluded him, he could take a diesel engine the size of a semi truck and keep it purring but give him a small two stroke 10 horse power engine and it was doomed. He had a very analytical mind excelling in games like chess, word jumble, and card games. He had a love of the age of sailing ship and could name just about every timber and sail on any style wooden ship. He was extremely easy to talk to and offered sagely advice on many subjects passing on knowledge and advice to both young and old. Often helping his children and Grandchildren with homework and school projects, working with them until the late hours of the night, to support anything to do with education. A confident and constant Role Model for work ethic, on how to lead a Christian life style, and how to be a good husband and man in general. He had this quiet way of encouraging you to strive to be better at many things he would challenge you in subtle ways be it a game of chess or education. A collector of coins after a fashion not as avid as some but enjoyed the hunt for such coins as the state quarters to make a complete set of them. He was an ardent James Bond fan and had seen each of the movies at least half a dozen times. A constant reader, often reading a series multiple times, everything from fiction to engineering manuals, has read hundreds if not thousands of books in his lifetime. He was almost always the quiet one in the room yet when coaxed into story telling was a very gifted orator and kept his audience enraptured throughout the story. He was not a sports fan leaning more towards intellectual pursuits yet could follow any game he did watch. His love for his Wife and Children was absolute, and he would defend them with a fervor that could rival a mother bear in ferocity, especially his wife Isabelle a.k.a. "Dolly" raise your voice to her or say one cross thing about her at your own peril. His legacy is truly in the family members whom he loved and is so loved by who survived him, His wife of almost 62 years Isabelle, his three children Mary-Louise, Patricia-Ann, James, His Grandchildren Victoria, Thomas, Glenn, Tianna, Robert, Riley, as well as two spiritually adopted grand daughters Katie and Petra; His great Grandchildren Lane, Danica, Dakota, Ramsey, Landon, and one on the way.