Needham Coppedge

Mr. Needham Coppedge, 85, retired from the Monsanto Company and former long-time resident of Columbia, died Sunday, February 6, 2005 in Nashville. A memorial service will be conducted Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church with The Rev. Thomas Wilson officiating. Following the service, the family will gather with friends in the Parish Hall for a celebration of his life. Memorials may be made to Harvest Share, 419 West 9th Street, Columbia, 38401; St. Thomas Foundation, 4220 Harding Road, Nashville, 37205 or the American Heart Association, 1818 Patterson Street, Nashville, 37203. Notes of sympathy may be sent to www.oakesandnichols.com. A native of Brownsville, Tennessee, he was the only child of the late Needham Coppedge and Bessie Womack Coppedge. He was a 1943 graduate of the University of Tennessee, earning a B.S. Degree in Chemical Engineering. His career began with the Monsanto Company in 1946. He worked as a research chemist in Anniston, Alabama; was a research and construction engineer in Karnac, Texas; and production supervisor in Trenton, Michigan. When first at the Columbia Plant, he served as personnel superintendent, engineering and production supervisor, assistant director of production and sales control and assistant director of personnel. From 1958 to 1961, he was assistant director of manufacturing at the Monsanto World Headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. From 1961 to 1962 was manufacturing superintendent of the St. Louis - Carondolet Plant. He returned to the Columbia Plant in 1962 as Plant Manager for over 600 hourly and 130 salaried employees until his retirement in 1982. Following his retirement from Monsanto Company, he served for several years as Director of Harvest Share and Neighbors Concerned. Mr. Coppedge was a communicant of St. Peter's Episcopal Church and served as a member of the Vestry. Active in civic and community affairs in Columbia and Maury County throughout his career, he served as a Commissioner for the City of Columbia; Vice-Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maury Regional Hospital; Board of Trustees of the Maury County Ambulance Service; member, Vice-President and President of the Columbia-Mt. Pleasant Chamber of Commerce; Board of Directors of the United Givers Fund, Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society; Board of Directors of Columbia State Community College and Columbia State Foundation; Board of Directors of the Middle Tennessee Bank and was a member of the Columbia Rotary Club. He was married November 23, 1946 to the former Girard Anne Tritchler of Atlanta and Columbia. Mrs. Coppedge preceded him in death October 30, 1973. Survivors include his wife of thirty years, Allen McDonald Coppedge of Franklin; two sons, William Needham (Patricia Riedle) Coppedge of Northbrook, Illinois and Robert Matthew Coppedge of Washington, D. C.; a daughter, Nancy House (Uriah Matthews, III) Clemmer of Hixson, Tennessee; a step-daughter, Debora Allen Guthrie (Joseph F. Kelly, Jr.) of New York, New York; six grandchildren, Elizabeth Girard Coppedge and Carolyn Dianne Coppedge of Northbrook, Illinois, Uriah Matthews Clemmer, IV, Jennifer House Clemmer, Christopher Allen Clemmer and Dillon Rader Coppedge Clemmer, all of Hixson, Tennessee.