West-Kopp Endowment
The Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) will forever miss their dedicated colleague Dr. Otto Kopp who passed away in 2005. Thanks to the generosity of Patti and Gary West, his daughter and son-in-law, undergraduate students in EPS may now be able to benefit from an endowment established in his memory. They explain, "Dad was a life-long researcher who believed in offering students a wide variety of learning tools. Providing educational resources to his undergraduates and seeing them use that applied knowledge to better the world were fundamental to his goals. We feel that Dad would be proud that this funding was being made available to his beloved students for the purpose of enhancing their educational opportunities.”
According to Department Head Dr. Claudia Mora, “The Otto C. Kopp Undergraduate Senior Research Endowment, and the many student research opportunities it will help to create, is a fitting memorial to a much-missed mentor and colleague. Otto Kopp was an excellent and dedicated colleague, an exacting scientist who held himself and his students to the highest standards in teaching and research. He made special efforts to draw undergraduates into his projects, spending many one-on-one hours with them, and sharing his skill and love for his work in equal parts.”
Dr. Otto Kopp was a professor of geology at the University of Tennessee from 1958 until his retirement in 1999, at which time he continued to teach on a part-time basis. He was also a consultant with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and a member of numerous other national scientific research organizations during his tenure at UTK.
Dr. Kopp received a B.S. from Notre Dame University and his M.A. and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He was known as a remarkable teacher, a wonderful husband and a caring father, and a “true volunteer” in the local community. He was a member of Sacred Heart Cathedral Church and a veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Korean War. Upon retirement from UTK, Dr. Kopp remained active in church and family life, in continuing his own education, and also within the local community by participating in service programs such as Mobile Meals and Second Harvest.
The new endowment in his name was established to provide broad-based support for the undergraduate thesis program within EPS as well as other projects at the senior undergraduate level within the department. The department has set a goal of adding an additional $20,000 to the principle in the next two years by encouraging alumni contributions.
Department Head Mora explains, “Our undergraduate majors are increasingly interested in taking on the challenge of independent research. More than 60% of our recent graduates have been involved in undergraduate research projects, examining everything from Hawaiian basalts to Tennessee oil field structures to Earth’s oldest cave deposits. Their efforts have culminated in presentations at regional and national conferences, several top University undergraduate research awards, and scholarship offers from top graduate programs. “
The Otto C. Kopp Undergraduate Senior Research Endowment will encourage and reward those continuing efforts.