William Ernest Kopp

1928 - 2020

William Ernest Kopp

CLINTON— William Ernest Kopp, only son of Ernest Rudolph Kopp and Elizabeth Evans Kopp, died of COVID-19, Nov. 22. Bill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, September 12, 1928.

From 1946 until 1953, he served in the National Guard of Missouri and the United States Air Force as a radio operator and technician rising to the rank of staff sergeant with overseas postings in Japan and Okinawa. His Air Force service brought him to Pope Air Force Base, Fayetteville, NC allowing him to meet Janie Starling, of Clinton, who he would marry in April 1953.

After graduating from North Carolina State University in 1956 with a degree in production engineering, he was employed by McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. There, he designed and managed manufacturing technologies for the F-4 Phantom. When McDonnell Aircraft was contracted by NASA to build the nation's first manned spacecraft, Bill moved his family to Cocoa Beach, Florida, to serve as spacecraft planner for the Mercury and Gemini space programs. In this role, he established overall work and test schedules, monitored testing, evaluated engineering changes, and even fabricated some of the spacecraft components on the family kitchen table.

With the advent of the Apollo space program, Bill was hired by IBM to work on manufacturing the instrumentation unit (IU) of the Saturn V. This guidance system for the super heavy-lift launch vehicle would ultimately take astronauts to the moon. His work in missile guidance systems would translate into contributions to national defense through the development of guidance software for the Polaris submarine launched ballistic missile. Bill would continue his career with IBM until his retirement, always working on developing new technologies to transform the world around us from the exploration of outer space to the manufacture of high-density computer chips.

Bill was an avid sailor, having built his first boat in which he and Janie spent many a weekend water skiing. From there, they worked their way through a series of ever larger boats, both power and sail, culminating in a 45 foot sloop in which they explored the Chesapeake Bay and its environs. When health issues forced them to rethink their maritime interest, they took up RVing, traveling to all 48 contiguous states as well as Alaska.

Bill was a deeply religious man. His faith in Jesus Christ and his commitment to the church were an inseparable part of his self-identity. He never failed to recount how he saw the hand of God moving throughout his life. Even into his late 80's, Bill was participating in mission work through his local church, pushing his walker ahead of him as he headed off to places like South Dakota Indian reservations or small Appalachian towns. One of his favorite weekly events was serving as greeter for First Baptist Church Clinton's Thursday soup kitchen.

William Ernest Kopp was preceded in death by his wife of 60 years, Janie Starling Kopp, and his sister, Evelyn Kopp. He leaves a son, William Ernest Kopp, Jr. and his wife Carol Anne Allen Kopp, of Clinton, and two granddaughters, Jennifer Jane Kopp, of Gwynn Oak, Maryland and Elizabeth Anne Kopp, also of Clinton.

Due to the pandemic, services will be limited to the immediate family. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be given to the Mission Development Fund, First Baptist Church, Clinton, North Carolina, 28328.