FORMER FOSTORIAN A NOTED
ENGINEER
June 8, 1978
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PIX #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
acheived 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 eletroncis and radio while in the Navy. For a year he was
the leading petty officer, teaching and lecturing on eletronics, at
the U.S. Pacific Fleet School at Honolulu.
After his service
stint, Coppus enrolled at Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, in
1946 in eletrical engineering. Later he took eveing classes at Toledo
University while he was employed at Eletric 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 weldprocesses; 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 Tuscon Gas and Eletric 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 vistied 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.
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