Since the new L is out I will post a couple of my stories that I have in the issue. The first one is the cover story with Ed and Mary Copple. I will post the layout pages to my writing blog.
Ed Copple knows deep in his mind that he probably should have just taken the seed money he had on hand from his paper route, his Air Force flight pay and his first job out of college and invested it all into Berkshire Hathaway stock.
But he was following his big dream.
That dream took him, and his newlywed wife Mary, to Ainsworth in western Nebraska in the early 1950s to start their own ranch. Even though he gotten off to a successful start in his business career in Lincoln, he had to satisfy that itch. The itch to raise cattle, put up hay and do all of the things a rancher does.
Although that dream turned south fairly quickly with a big dip in cattle prices, the Copples continue to show that those same traits are what make a rancher successful in the big city, business world as well: hard work, dedication, honesty and, of course, helping your neighbors. So earlier this year when the Copples presented a one million dollar gift to the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools for the creation of a Student Athlete Development Center at Seacrest Field, those tough times seemed to be so far away but yet they’ve always stayed in the memory of Ed, the President of Lincoln’s successful Copple Insurance Agency.
It was the strong education that the Copples received that helped them pick themselves up and has allowed them to do so much for their community. Both from small towns around Lincoln (Ed from Walton and Mary from Roca), they both earned degrees from UNL (Ed in Business Administration and Mary in Elementary Education). But earning those degrees also took some perseverance. World War II was taking place when Ed and Mary were at college and during his junior year, Ed entered the Air Force. He first flew a PT-17 training plane, doing loops and flips to learn to be a better pilot (he continues to fly today). He was also an instructor for a short amount of time during his three years of service but he returned to the university to complete his degree, started dating Mary and then marrying her in 1948.
“An education is one of the most important things that you can give a child,” Mary said, who taught at both Prescott and Holmes Elementary schools in Lincoln.
A major part of that overall education, according to the Copple’s, is physical education and athletics. Mary was a volleyball player in high school, although athletics for women was somewhat limited. Ed was a football player, basketball player and a pole vaulter at Lincoln High until his senior year when he came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to be able to advance up the depth chart far enough on the gridiron to play for the Links. So he chose to transfer to College View, where he would be able to get onto the field.
In his sophomore year of college, Ed took an even larger step that showed his passion to improve in athletics. “I hitchhiked to California,” Ed said, who lettered in wrestling at UNL in the 1940s. “I had earned my letter in wrestling so I had a white shirt and this red letter coat and I stood out by the overpass and hitchhiked to San Francisco because my best buddy here had a cousin from Oklahoma State who was a two-time national champion at my weight who had gotten a job in the shipyards out there. So he said if you guys could come out here I will work out with you and teach you some wrestling moves. I stayed out there all summer and worked in the shipyards.”
All of the above statements are a true testament to how important athletics is to Ed.
“Athletics teaches them discipline,” Ed said. “It teaches them to meet and be with all kinds of people. It teaches you about physical fitness and health. When I was on the school board for nine years (1964-73) I was pushing all of the time to get more physical education. It’s the cheapest class they have. I made a little progress. I think it is absolutely essential. Being on an athletic team, you travel to different places in Nebraska and see different situations and you learn a lot from it. When you get out into the real world, you are going to be competing. If you don’t have that experience growing up, you are going to be at a real disadvantage.”
The 10,000 square foot center will be a multipurpose building that will serve male and female student athletes and coaches from the city and state. It will house locker rooms, training rooms and showers and be available, not only to use for nearby athletic events, but also coaching clinics throughout the year.
“The space is nice and flexible in the center,” said Barb Bartle, President of the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools, who approached the Copple’s about the gift. “There will also be room to bring chairs in for training sessions in the summer time with coaches. It can be used year around. It will be very flexible and user friendly.”
Ed added, “It will be there long, long after all of us are gone. A year ago last December, they came into the office and proposed the idea. We studied the whole thing and decided yes we would do it. Our son and our grandson both played out there. If it had anything to do with physical fitness or athletics they knew I had a soft spot. It’s about time we do something for sports. No child left behind is all about academics and they’ve been eliminating recess. We need to give more emphasis to athletics, physical education and health.”
Even though he’s in his 80s, Ed still remains very active. Each mid-morning he leaves his office near 16th and L and gets a workout in at the downtown YMCA.
“There are only two reasons I don’t work out,” Ed said, who had a quadruple bypass 20 years ago. “One is if I have a temperature of more than 100 degrees. The other is if we get hit with a Tsunami. Otherwise I make it. I never miss. No matter what is going on here.” On Monday, Wednesday and Friday he does 10 minutes of aerobics and then 20 minutes on the paramount machines and then 10 more minutes of aerobics for a total of 40 minutes. Then on Tuesday and Thursday he does 30 minutes of aerobics.
“I think that is why this was such a good fit,” Barb said, who added that the Copple’s have also established an endowment with the foundation for an outstanding physical fitness award. “First of all, what Ed learned as an athlete and the discipline to do something to support athletes is a nice fit for his values.”
Those basic ranching values go a long way and its something the Copple’s passed on to their children and now their grandchildren. “That’s what we tried to teach them,” Ed said. “Two of them are lawyers, one of them is a teacher and one is a counselor. Every one of our grandkids has a good mind. We feel blessed.”
Nearly 20 years ago, the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools was created to provide teachers and students with opportunities that would otherwise be beyond their reach. By bringing parents, alumni, friends, corporations and other foundations together, the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools provides financial resources and support to make the critical difference needed to continue Lincoln Public School’s award-winning, quality educational system. They are currently in the middle of the Great Schools….Forever! campaign, where they plan on raising $10 million in the next three years.
“It was great,” Ed said about the check presentation. “It was fun. Mary and I both love the schools. Our kids and grandkids have had more than 117 years of school in Lincoln. We think the Lincoln schools deserve our support.”
Barb added, “They knew from their experiences the importance of this as a leadership gift. It’s the first time that we’ve asked for a million dollar gift. It was really a perfect fit. We hope the next person will want to do something for libraries or music or arts. There are a lot of opportunities. This is just the beginning.”
Ed Copple knows deep in his mind that he probably should have just taken the seed money he had on hand from his paper route, his Air Force flight pay and his first job out of college and invested it all into Berkshire Hathaway stock.
But he was following his big dream.
That dream took him, and his newlywed wife Mary, to Ainsworth in western Nebraska in the early 1950s to start their own ranch. Even though he gotten off to a successful start in his business career in Lincoln, he had to satisfy that itch. The itch to raise cattle, put up hay and do all of the things a rancher does.
Although that dream turned south fairly quickly with a big dip in cattle prices, the Copples continue to show that those same traits are what make a rancher successful in the big city, business world as well: hard work, dedication, honesty and, of course, helping your neighbors. So earlier this year when the Copples presented a one million dollar gift to the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools for the creation of a Student Athlete Development Center at Seacrest Field, those tough times seemed to be so far away but yet they’ve always stayed in the memory of Ed, the President of Lincoln’s successful Copple Insurance Agency.
It was the strong education that the Copples received that helped them pick themselves up and has allowed them to do so much for their community. Both from small towns around Lincoln (Ed from Walton and Mary from Roca), they both earned degrees from UNL (Ed in Business Administration and Mary in Elementary Education). But earning those degrees also took some perseverance. World War II was taking place when Ed and Mary were at college and during his junior year, Ed entered the Air Force. He first flew a PT-17 training plane, doing loops and flips to learn to be a better pilot (he continues to fly today). He was also an instructor for a short amount of time during his three years of service but he returned to the university to complete his degree, started dating Mary and then marrying her in 1948.
“An education is one of the most important things that you can give a child,” Mary said, who taught at both Prescott and Holmes Elementary schools in Lincoln.
A major part of that overall education, according to the Copple’s, is physical education and athletics. Mary was a volleyball player in high school, although athletics for women was somewhat limited. Ed was a football player, basketball player and a pole vaulter at Lincoln High until his senior year when he came to the conclusion that he wasn’t going to be able to advance up the depth chart far enough on the gridiron to play for the Links. So he chose to transfer to College View, where he would be able to get onto the field.
In his sophomore year of college, Ed took an even larger step that showed his passion to improve in athletics. “I hitchhiked to California,” Ed said, who lettered in wrestling at UNL in the 1940s. “I had earned my letter in wrestling so I had a white shirt and this red letter coat and I stood out by the overpass and hitchhiked to San Francisco because my best buddy here had a cousin from Oklahoma State who was a two-time national champion at my weight who had gotten a job in the shipyards out there. So he said if you guys could come out here I will work out with you and teach you some wrestling moves. I stayed out there all summer and worked in the shipyards.”
All of the above statements are a true testament to how important athletics is to Ed.
“Athletics teaches them discipline,” Ed said. “It teaches them to meet and be with all kinds of people. It teaches you about physical fitness and health. When I was on the school board for nine years (1964-73) I was pushing all of the time to get more physical education. It’s the cheapest class they have. I made a little progress. I think it is absolutely essential. Being on an athletic team, you travel to different places in Nebraska and see different situations and you learn a lot from it. When you get out into the real world, you are going to be competing. If you don’t have that experience growing up, you are going to be at a real disadvantage.”
The 10,000 square foot center will be a multipurpose building that will serve male and female student athletes and coaches from the city and state. It will house locker rooms, training rooms and showers and be available, not only to use for nearby athletic events, but also coaching clinics throughout the year.
“The space is nice and flexible in the center,” said Barb Bartle, President of the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools, who approached the Copple’s about the gift. “There will also be room to bring chairs in for training sessions in the summer time with coaches. It can be used year around. It will be very flexible and user friendly.”
Ed added, “It will be there long, long after all of us are gone. A year ago last December, they came into the office and proposed the idea. We studied the whole thing and decided yes we would do it. Our son and our grandson both played out there. If it had anything to do with physical fitness or athletics they knew I had a soft spot. It’s about time we do something for sports. No child left behind is all about academics and they’ve been eliminating recess. We need to give more emphasis to athletics, physical education and health.”
Even though he’s in his 80s, Ed still remains very active. Each mid-morning he leaves his office near 16th and L and gets a workout in at the downtown YMCA.
“There are only two reasons I don’t work out,” Ed said, who had a quadruple bypass 20 years ago. “One is if I have a temperature of more than 100 degrees. The other is if we get hit with a Tsunami. Otherwise I make it. I never miss. No matter what is going on here.” On Monday, Wednesday and Friday he does 10 minutes of aerobics and then 20 minutes on the paramount machines and then 10 more minutes of aerobics for a total of 40 minutes. Then on Tuesday and Thursday he does 30 minutes of aerobics.
“I think that is why this was such a good fit,” Barb said, who added that the Copple’s have also established an endowment with the foundation for an outstanding physical fitness award. “First of all, what Ed learned as an athlete and the discipline to do something to support athletes is a nice fit for his values.”
Those basic ranching values go a long way and its something the Copple’s passed on to their children and now their grandchildren. “That’s what we tried to teach them,” Ed said. “Two of them are lawyers, one of them is a teacher and one is a counselor. Every one of our grandkids has a good mind. We feel blessed.”
Nearly 20 years ago, the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools was created to provide teachers and students with opportunities that would otherwise be beyond their reach. By bringing parents, alumni, friends, corporations and other foundations together, the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools provides financial resources and support to make the critical difference needed to continue Lincoln Public School’s award-winning, quality educational system. They are currently in the middle of the Great Schools….Forever! campaign, where they plan on raising $10 million in the next three years.
“It was great,” Ed said about the check presentation. “It was fun. Mary and I both love the schools. Our kids and grandkids have had more than 117 years of school in Lincoln. We think the Lincoln schools deserve our support.”
Barb added, “They knew from their experiences the importance of this as a leadership gift. It’s the first time that we’ve asked for a million dollar gift. It was really a perfect fit. We hope the next person will want to do something for libraries or music or arts. There are a lot of opportunities. This is just the beginning.”
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