High school drop out worked 44 years at Armco, spent 17 years helping homeless

Apr. 13—MIDDLETOWN — By the time Charles Atkinson Cope reached his sophomore year at Monroe High School, he realized school wasn't for him.

"He just wanted to get a job," said Kristi Henry, one of his four children.

So he dropped out and, after working at a local car dealership, began his career at Armco in Middletown.

Cope worked there from 1954 to 1998, and during his 44-year career as a welder, he rarely called in sick, Henry said.

"I could count on one hand the number of times," she said about her father's unwillingness to call off work. "That generation had one heck of a work ethic."

When people asked Cope why he didn't retire earlier, he simply told them: "I like it out there."

Cope, of Middletown, died April 7 at Bickford of Middletown. He was 86.

Cope's sister-in-law, Nancy Caudill, founded Hope House, a Middletown homeless shelter. He soon started volunteering there until Caudill finally convinced him to take a paid position. For 17 years, he helped with building maintenance, running errands and transporting the homeless to their medical appointments.

"Whatever they needed, he'd do," Henry said.

He showed similar compassion to strangers, his daughter said.

She remembered one time when her father was approached by someone asking for money in a Middletown restaurant parking lot. She told her father: "You know he will buy drugs with that."

He didn't care. He reached into his wallet and handed the man a few dollars.

"It's on my heart to give to him" was his message to his daughter.

She called him "a selfless, caring man who was the most kind hearted. Everyone loved my dad. He was always there for me and my kids."

He also was very active in his church, Cincinnati Primitive Baptist, his daughter said.

Besides a daughter, he's survived by three sons, Chuck (Amy) Cope, Mark (Karen) Cope and Mike Cope; grandchildren, Jessica, Joey, Jeremy, Karla, Lacy, Myriah, Michael, Adam, Emily and Sam; and 24 great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Peggy Cope; son-in-law, Jerry Jeffries; brothers, Dick, James, Jerry, John, Bing and Tad; and sisters, Wilma Gibson and Marilee O'Connor.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Wilson Schramm Spaulding Funeral Home, 3805 Roosevelt Blvd. with Elder Lasserre Bradley Jr. officiating. Interment will be at Woodside Cemetery and Arboretum.