Benjamin Franklin Cope Jr.

Benjamin Franklin Cope Jr., age 87, passed away peacefully on December 13, 2019 only six days after his loving wife of 63 years had passed. Ben, and his wife Dardy, had recently moved to Touchmark at the Ranch in Prescott, Arizona to enjoy another warm weather winter. Ben was born on July 23, 1932, in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. He enjoyed a wonderful carefree childhood as an only child but was also an industrious, hard-working youth helping out on a farm, raising some animals, and selling items at a roadside farm stand. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where he received his bachelor’s degree, majoring in German. One summer during college, independent Ben hitchhiked from his home in New Jersey out to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming to work as a volunteer firefighter. It was here that he met his future wife, Dardinell A. Danielson. After their engagement in 1954, Ben served from October 1954 to October 1956, as a Special Agent in The United States Army Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC). Thereafter, Ben began a career in banking, first as a commercial loan officer with The First Pennsylvania Banking and Trust Company, in Philadelphia, PA, and 38 years later retired as a President with National Bank of Detroit, in Ann Arbor, MI. Ben married Dardy on October 20, 1956, at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church in Ivanhoe, Minnesota, and raised seven children while living in Willingboro, New Jersey; South Bend, Indiana and Ann Arbor, Michigan. They spent their retirement years residing between their summer home on Leech Lake in Walker, Minnesota and their winter desert home in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Two of his seven children, Renee and Vaughn, predeceased him. Ben is survived by Kevin (Maura) Cope; Bret (Martha) Cope; Sonja Cope; Tara (Brad) Schaefer; Gina Smith; fifteen grandchildren and one great granddaughter. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Thursday, December 19, 2019, at 10:00 am. It will be preceded by a 9:30 am rosary at St. Germaine Catholic Church, 7997 East Dana Drive, Prescott Valley, Arizona. A graveside burial service will be held next summer in Ivanhoe, Minnesota. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in honor of Ben be sent to: Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary, W284N698 Cherry Lane, Waukesha, Wisconsin 53188.