HARLINGEN — Family and friends yesterday remembered Rollins Koppel as a devoted husband and father and prominent attorney and businessman whose generosity helped develop the city he loved.
Koppel died Tuesday morning following a minor surgical procedure.
He was 88.
Koppel, a preeminent attorney who owned the Raymondville Bank of Texas, helped guide his children to follow successful careers.
“He was a devoted father — a very, very principled guy with solid values and a strong work ethic,” his son Nathan Koppel, a media director with an Austin law firm, said yesterday.
“He was a little bit of a task master,” he said. “He was the man to make sure we worked hard and planned for our futures. He was very career driven — that no one could really feel fulfilled if you’re not using your God-given abilities.”
As his children grew up, he pushed them to develop five-year plans, his son said.
“He was authoritarian, expected a lot and really valued hard work,” said his daughter Annie Koppel Van Hanken, senior program officer with a philanthropic foundation in Tulsa, Okla. “He was always available to us to advise us on life, goal-setting, working hard and pursuing a successful career.”
In 1982, after his law partner Jack Skaggs died of a heart attack, Koppel embraced a healthy lifestyle, cycling and rollerblading, she said.
“People knew him around town from his get-up — the reflective vest, the rollerblades and his English bulldog on a leash,” she said. “He either pulled the dog or the dog pulled him.”
Koppel was a highly principled man who “practiced honesty and believed in the importance of reputation and the value of your name,” his daughter said.
“He was very proud of being a liberal Democrat,” she said. “He was interested in fairness, feeling we owed a debt to society. He felt society and government together should worry about people in poverty.”
Mayor Chris Boswell remembered Koppel as “a very generous man who cared a lot about his community.”
“He did a lot for the community over two generations,” Boswell said.
Last year, Koppel donated $100,000 to an award-winning project to build an all-inclusive playground focusing on special needs children at Lon C. Hill Park.
Today, the playground — part of a $1.3 million project that built three playgrounds at city parks — is named the Amalie L. “Amy” Koppel Memorial Park, in honor of Koppel’s wife, who taught at the city’s schools.
“That was something he took a lot of joy in doing,” Boswell said. “It was real touching how he was so enthusiastic and happy about it.”
Boswell described Koppel as “a tenacious lawyer.”
“When he was on a case he focused on nothing but that,” Boswell said. “He would tirelessly represent his clients.”
When Randy Whittington came to town in 1973, he took a job with Koppel and Scaggs.
“I’d never practiced law before so I guess I learned how to practice law from them,” Whittington said.
Koppel, he said, “was tough as nails.”
“He had a reputation of being a tough lawyer and a good negotiator,” Whittington said. “Everybody knew when you’re up against Rollie you’ve got a fight on your hands.”
Attorney Jeffrey Jackson called Koppel “one of the preeminent attorneys in the Valley.”
“He was a force in the legal community, for sure,” Jackson said.
In 1977, Jackson took a job as Koppel’s law partner.
“Rollie was a lawyer’s lawyer,” Jackson said. “He was a dynamic lawyer — one of the most resourceful and legally optimistic lawyers I knew and he was always trying to figure out a way out of a problem. He loved law. He would work Saturdays and Sundays.”
An emotional George Rivera, mayor of Palm Valley, said he was surprised by the news of his friend’s death.
“I was shocked, I just saw him the previous afternoon,” he said.
While Koppel was moving a little bit slower and at times had mild memory loss, Rivera said in no way did he ever consider Koppel would be gone so soon.
Koppel lived across the golf course from Rivera and they met via a mutual friend back in 2009 when Rivera first came to Palm Valley.
It was Koppel who encouraged and supported Rivera’s run for mayor.
“He was one of the main reasons why I ran for mayor,” Rivera said during a phone interview. “This really is a sad, sad moment for me personally. I loved that man like a father. He was a super guy and I am going to miss him.”
The pair played golf together and had a plan to create a park in Palm Valley to honor Rollins’ late wife. Although that didn’t turn out as planned, Koppel did achieve his goal of a park to honor Amalie.
“I was very happy with what the city of Harlingen was able to do,” Rivera said. “We couldn’t have done that. He was absolutely pleased. It was a Godsend we didn’t approve it because that park for Amy is exceptional and much better than anything we could have ever done.”
Rivera also said Koppel was known all over the Valley for his projects and efforts.
“I still can’t comprehend the loss, but it will be huge,” Rivera said. “He will be sorely, surely and wholeheartedly missed.”
But, Rivera was still able to smile about his friend despite the sadness.
Rivera said Koppel had been forgetting some things more recently, but never forgot where every dollar of his was located.
“He might not remember he met you yesterday, but I guarantee you he remembered and knew he had a dollar in his ashtray in his car,” Rivera laughed. “He was a great man.”
Editor Lisa Seiser contributed to this story.
