‘I wish we were all more like Michael Copeland:’ Community mourns loss of Olathe mayor
Each year, Mayor Michael Copeland would visit Olathe elementary schools with the neediest kids to read to first-graders and pass out book bags, paperbacks and stickers.
“He didn’t do it to get credit. He absolutely loved it,” Olathe Superintendent John Allison said Thursday. “There was a bounce in his step when he went through the school doors and could talk to students. You could just see his smile and his enthusiasm, and how the students got so engaged. That will always be a vision I will carry of the mayor.”
The mayor’s children literacy program is only one example of how Copeland chose to serve the Johnson County city for nearly 30 years.
Copeland died Wednesday night of an undisclosed cause. He was 58. On Thursday, community members and colleagues remembered him as a humble and generous friend, but also as someone who was not afraid to be a bold leader.
Olathe’s longest-serving mayor, Copeland proved that three years ago when he addressed the city after a deadly shooting — a federal hate crime — at Austins Bar & Grill.
“What has this tragedy showed us about our community?” Copeland asked during his 2017 state of the city address. “It reaffirmed who we are. It showed our strength is our different origins, melded into this compassionate, inclusive and united community.”
“No act of evil will divide us.”
City leaders learned of Copeland’s death after midnight. Although Copeland had missed some meetings last month, he attended Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.
“He told me that he hadn’t been feeling well and shared that with me. Then I got the call last night that he had passed,” City Councilman Wes McCoy said.
City Manager Michael Wilkes said his death was unexpected.
“It was a complete and total shock,” Wilkes said. “I had talked to him personally on my way home last night. We were supposed to have lunch today (Thursday) at 11:30.”
“He will leave a humongous hole in our community,” said Wilkes, who worked with Copeland in the city for 22 years.
Wilkes said that Councilman John Bacon, mayor pro tem who has served on the City Council since 1995, was sworn in as the new mayor on Thursday. A committee will begin the process of vetting candidates to fill Bacon’s at-large council seat.
“I can’t begin to say how much Mike will be missed. I lost a great friend of 40 years, and the community lost a true advocate and cheerleader who loved Olathe,” Bacon said in a statement. “Olathe loved Mike as well. We will do our best to carry on his legacy.”
Leaders throughout the Kansas City metro and state of Kansas on Thursday shared their memories of Copeland. Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said that Copeland “was a kind, intelligent, generous and affable man, who dedicated his life to his family, his friends and his community.”
“Whether at a ballgame or a business meeting, Michael was genuine, smiling and willing to give welcome advice to a rookie mayor like me. I will miss him and this region will miss his unifying voice in these tumultuous times.”
‘One of the best people’
A football scholarship with MidAmerica Nazarene University brought Copeland from California to Olathe. And he didn’t lose his passion for the sport after graduating and settling down in the city.
“He loved Chiefs football. And I’ll always remember going to games with him,” said Tim McKee, CEO of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. “One of my best memories with him is being down on the field in Arrowhead just before a Chiefs game. And you could just see the pure joy on his face. His son was starting to play football too, and he was just so happy and proud about that.”
Whether it was watching a football game, reading to students or leading a City Council meeting, colleagues said Copeland exuded joy.
“He was just a great leader. Everyone looked to him to lead. And he would bring people together and drive work that way,” McKee said. “He wasn’t just a mayor to me, he was a close friend. I worked with him for over 20 years, so it’s like losing a brother.”
Copeland joined the Olathe City Council in 1993, and then was elected mayor in 2001. Colleagues and friends said that he had a knack for bringing people together to achieve a common goal. He led the city as it transformed from a bedroom community to a booming suburb, adding around 50,000 residents under his leadership.
“He was a very strong leader. But just as much, he was also very much a listener,” Allison said. “He listened to people and processed what they said. He had just a great heart for this community. It’s going to be tough to move forward without him.”
While he held public office, Olathe added 18 parks and spearheaded major projects, such as the Olathe Community Center, a new City Hall, the Indian Creek Library and Lake Olathe Park. Most recently, Copeland helped guide efforts to redevelop the downtown, which is being revitalized with the new Johnson County courthouse, a modern library branch and its first major apartment complex in decades.
“There wasn’t a project that he wasn’t intimately involved with,” McKee said.
Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said Copeland was a unique politician “in the way he related to his community, to people and his full dedication to seeing something good happen in every circumstance.”
“I’ve never seen an elected official that is so focused, not on themselves but on the community and the job they have. Even in today’s messy world of politics, Mike Copeland just stood above other people,” Moran told The Star on Thursday. “You expect politicians to say nice things about people at the time of their death, but that’s not what I’m doing. I’m speaking from my heart: He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life.”
“It didn’t matter if you were 4 years old or 84 years old, Mike had the capability of being the person you wanted as your best friend, your neighbor and your mayor.”
‘Helping people came naturally’
Copeland worked with the Kansas Department of Commerce and sat on the Olathe Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors. He also served on the Bi-State Commission, the University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board and on the board of directors for KVC Health Systems and Union Station.
Whether Copeland was discussing city business or at a chamber of commerce meeting, McKee said “he’d always gravitate back to his kids.”
“He was a great man and a great father. He was just so proud of his kids and who they were becoming,” McKee said.
Copeland leaves behind his wife, Maria, daughters Olivia and Abigail, and son Joshua. His family could not be reached for comment.
Whether it was his own children or students in Olathe’s schools, many said that Copeland had a passion for inspiring and helping the city’s youngest residents. In addition to his literacy program, he created the Olathe Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund which has raised more $1.5 million for children’s charities.
“He always said the school district was a key economic driver for the Olathe community. He not only loved the schools, but also realized what important role they played in the community,” Allison said. “As a superintendent, I’ve never seen a mayor have that type of relationship with a school district. He was just an exceptional person.”
Copeland received several accolades over the years for his public service and charity work. In 2011, for example, he received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Award from the Olathe Branch of the NAACP.
“Helping people just came naturally to him,” Moran said. “A lot of what Mike Copeland is, is his faith. His relationship with God made him the human we should all be.”
“I wish we were all more like Michael Copeland.”
Even when schools closed this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Copeland continued to reach out to children in the community. In a video posted online for first-graders learning at home, Copeland read the book “Clifford’s Good Deeds.” He then announced students would receive a copy of the book and a new backpack when they returned to class.
Copeland left the children watching the video with this message:
“We can all do good deeds. We just have to take into account what our abilities are.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 5:37 PM.
