We are here to commemorate the life of Morton J Koplo, “Mort” to recent friends and “Morty” to family. I am delivering this memorium on behalf of Harv, Merryl and myself, Mort’s children, and also on behalf of our mom who left us a while ago. She is very much a part of this and one cannot actually memorialize the one without the other.
I do want to firmly establish that this is not at all a sad occasion, but one of celebration! A celebration of a life lived long and with gusto.
For Mort led a long and very fruitful life – full of friends and happy times. And as most will recall, his sense of humor and ready ability to laugh never flagged. He lived beyond 90 years, and he lived the way he wished. Of course, Mort always did things the way he wished, that was one of his hallmarks. It didn’t matter to him if he was right or wrong, what mattered was that he did things his way. In that, he was very lucky! Because most of his decisions were right, sometimes in spite of himself. And he was readily able to laugh at his own mistakes.
He was lucky in that he made good choices. Probably the best choice of his life was hooking up with Evelyn Steinberg – his wife of 62 years. She was a gem amongst gems, and kept Mort out of trouble, organized his life, and made things simple for him so that HE didn’t have to make a lot of decisions. Hence, he couldn’t make a lot of mistakes!
I don’t have a lot of information about his early days, other than that he had a reputation as a troublemaker. Thus the stories were hidden from us kids, but occasionally his cousin Billy would start to relate one. He was pretty much allowed to run wild as a kid, had a Model A Ford at one point and at another a red Packard. He grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn and went to Madison HS on Bedford Avenue. I’m not sure if they threw him out or he quit, but I don’t believe he finished High School. Although he didn’t have a formal education, he moved himself from a oil truck driver to a medical equipment manufacturer on his own bat. He enjoyed reading. He tended to make up his own opinion on things and didn’t care if anyone else agreed with him or not. This got him in a little trouble with his children at times, and it was often noted that his wife had a louder voice then he did. There was quite a bit of exercising of vocal chords in the Koplo household in days gone by.
When I think of what my dad would like to be remembered for, the first thing that springs to mind is that he lived past 90 years with a full head of hair! Now to some, that might sound trivial, but Mort was proud of his hair – and don’t you ever try to muss it up! He might want to be remembered for all the people he helped, and in fact they number in the hundreds. He was ALWAYS willing to help a neighbor or even a stranger – and he wasn’t concerned with race or color or national origin. He was the kind of guy who would stop on the street to help if he saw someone was having trouble. He wasn’t given to a lot of analysis or advice – nor did he ever put a lot of thought into things. He was a “Doer” as they say on the commercials.
Mort was the son of Joseph and Sylvia Koplo, Joseph being an immigrant who started a Plumbing business in Brooklyn in 1922. This grew to be “Koplo Heating and Plumbing” and they sold and serviced oil burning home furnaces. After a brief spell of disagreement with his dad (and who hasn’t had those?), Mort went to work driving an oil truck for a neighbor. Being a natural entrepreneur, he soon convinced his father to buy an oil truck as well, and K&K Heating was born. For years after that he worked in the family business delivering fuel oil and servicing oil burners. This grew to three oil trucks, named Steve, Harv and Sue Sue (for Merryl Sue) after Mort’s three kids, also nicknamed by Mort “Peanuts, Popcorn and Cracker Jacks” – the kids, I mean, not the trucks.
Mort was the eldest of three children and he dearly loved his brother and sister, but most of all, he was devoted to his father. He lost his own mother when he was 22, soon after his wedding to Evelyn.
My early memories which had a great effect on me in later years included my dad leaving at night mid winter to service a customer who had no heat, or delivering fuel oil in a blizzard to keep the customers warm. In those days the only way to know how much fuel a customer was using was to calculate “Degree Day Cards” based on the degrees of temperature of each day and the number of gallons of fuel oil needed to heat the home a certain number of degrees, then determining the number of days of fuel available so he knew when each customer would need to have a delivery of fuel oil. For years Mort would fill these out and calculate them for each of their customers each night, and schedule the deliveries based on those calculations. If he got it wrong and they ran out of fuel he’d be out there in the middle of the night with an oil truck to fill them up. He always cared deeply for his customers and took responsibility for them. This held through as he got into later businesses as well.
Later, I remember he owned three apartment buildings totaling 24 units in Miami and he had the same concerns. If something didn’t work right for a renter he was out there fixing it himself - replacing plumbing washers or water heaters or handling an electrical problem. The building was mostly rented by Hispanics and Mort cared deeply about the people and especially the children. He’d bring gifts for birthdays and they all knew him. His generosity extended to everyone he knew during his life.
And, of course, his neighbors at Valencia Lakes would call on him as well. He wasn’t the most expert at getting things done, but he always got something to work. When he moved to Valencia Lakes he wanted Tennis Courts and arranged for the Contractor to put them in. He also served on the committee that was responsible for the Lakes and the Plantings, and personally directed the improvements to plantings throughout the neighborhoods and his improvements were superb. Also, his skill as a problem solver was so well known that if there was any problem in Valencia Lakes and they couldn’t get ahold of a repairman, the office would call Mort.
The thing that sticks out most in my mind, however, was Mort’s tenacity in getting things done. He allowed nothing to stop him, whether it be a mechanical problem, or his physical limitations. He simply disagreed with any consideration that he couldn’t do something he wanted to do. And when he set his mind to do it he wouldn’t rest until it got done, no matter the consequences. He played Tennis well into his 80’s, and he played hard, even against younger men, and kept up with them. And when his knees gave out he simply went to an Orthopedic Surgeon and asked for new ones so he could continue playing, researching first which ones were best for tennis. That’s just the way he was. He knew no obstacles and he overcame whatever came up in life.
Those who only knew him these last few years only know a very small part of the story. From 1928 to 2012 – the first 84 years of his life – Mort never lived alone. First, he lived with his parents until he married, then he moved in with his in-laws until he could afford an apartment for his wife and kids. He had no idea how to live by himself. This, probably more than anything, took it’s toll on him. Mort did not know how to cook. He did not know how to pay bills. He did not know that when you pay for something with a credit card that you actually had to send money to the credit card company.
He’d never done any of these things, and at 84 it was a bit too much to learn. The loss of Evelyn was just too much. So the last 6 years of his life were rather difficult for him. But he stubbornly refused to leave their home or to go to Assisted Living until it became obvious that it was too dangerous for him to fend for himself – and even then he needed quite a bit of convincing.
I know that this limited memorium does not do my father justice. I only tried to give you a picture of the man, who he was and how he lived. Each of you who knew him undoubtedly have your own stories to tell. What I want to do more than anything else this day is to thank my father for having lived, for having helped, for making it possible for so many of us to thrive. We owe him a great deal and we want him to know that he was appreciated, that his life had value and is acknowledged, and that all he did for everyone else is, and will continue to be, deeply appreciated.
Thank you dad! And Goodbye.
From:
Stephen J Koplo
Harvey A Koplo
Merryl S Koplo
And last, but certainly not least, Evelyn S Koplo