June 8, 1978
Picture #1 – Dale E. Coppus
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in the series of articles about former Fostorians who grew up here. The purpose of the article is two-fold…to inform older readers about old friends and acquaintances, and to let younger readers know about those Fostorians who have successful careers…hopefully to inspire and encourage them.
Dale E. Coppus, a Fostoria native, graduated from Fostoria High in 1941, has already achieved notable success in his chosen career of engineering and manufacturing and continues to provide meritorious service to his present employer Hughes Aircraft, with whom he has been associated since 1955.
Coppus was born April 11, 1923, to Clarence H. Coppus and the late Erma (Mitchell) Coppus…both well known Fostorians.
Coppus worked briefly at The Fostoria Pressed Steel Corp. as a draftsman prior to entering the Navy during World War II. He continued his education in the field of electronics and radio while in the Navy. For a year he was the leading petty officer, teaching and lecturing on electronics, at the U.S. Pacific Fleet School at Honolulu.
After his service stint, Coppus enrolled at Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, in 1946 in electrical engineering. Later he took evening classes at Toledo University while he was employed at Electric Autolite in Fostoria for two years in the methods engineering department.
During his early employment at Hughes Aircraft he also studied at University of Arizona, Tucson, in electrical engineering and metallurgical engineering.
On March 27 of this year Coppus was promoted to head, production engineering. ..responsible for all the tool engineers that write the production planning and provide engineering floor support to the fabrication shops. Just prior to the promotion he was senior production engineer, responsible for fabrication engineering and technical direction of the 27 production engineers involved in planning, producibility, fabrication and tool design. In that capacity he was responsible for forecasting, budgeting, procurement, installation and production buy-off of all manufacturing equipment in the process shops and the new state-of-the-art hybrid microelectronics manufacturing.
Since Highes Aircraft is deeply involved in aerospace and missile programs for the U.S. government, Coppus has also been involved with many of his work responsibilities. He worked with the designers of the surveyor spacecraft to make the tripod landing gear producible ad a spotwelded assembly. He was also involved in TOW, Phoenix, Maverick, Roland and Walleye missile programs.
Coppus’ manufacturing research responsibilities were many during 1962-67 when the missile programs were developing…really too many to enumerate. He invented two methods for weld processes; was a member of the team to develop microcircuit manufacturing for Hughes, proposed the magnetic forming process for attachment of the TOW fuselage sections and researched the applicability of the process; developed the indirect welding methods for fabrication of Phoenix missile flight surfaces.
His knowledge and expertise in his chosen fields has made Coppus a popular lecturer at various industry seminars, and at the University of Arizona as guest lecturer for three years. His subjects cover welding techniques and processes, magnetic pulse forming and fabrication processes for silicon integrated circuits.
During high school years, Coppus was active in many extra circular activities. He was on the Red and Black annual staff and a member of Hi-Y, photography club and the scholarship team. He was in the senior class play and sang in the chorus.
Fostorians should be proud of the achievements of this native son. Many readers will remember Coppus’ wife as the former Ruthanne Flechtner who also grew up here and is the sister of Fostorian Betty Pritchard.
The Coppus’ have two children, Tina and George.
Tina graduated from the University of Arizona in 1973 in education but is employed by Tucson Gas and Electric Co.
George shows evidence of following in his father’s footsteps. He graduated with a BS in metallurgical engineering in 1975 and with a MS degree this year…also in metallurgical engineering…and is employed at Hughes. In fact, he obtained his masters on a Hughes fellowship and has been an employee for over two years.
READER FEEDBACK
Providence Spring…that story created much interest. George Emahiser, a local history and lineage buff, reported that there exists in his family a letter written by an ancestor to the folks back home, while imprisoned at Andersonville. When a copy of the letter is made available it will be published in a future column. A number of other readers were also interested because they knew ancestors were lodged at the prison.
Memorial Day Story – correction…Ted Fraver informed me that the Stultz brothers, Paul and John were not buried in the Liberty cemetery, as reported but in the Zion cemetery, east of Fostoria. Fraver and the Stultz family were friends, and he visited the graves of the brothers prior to Memorial Day.
Kate Kuhn Confined…Mrs. Ed Clark reported in a letter recently that her mother Mrs. Bid (Kate) Kuhn is now confined to a nursing facility in Omaha.