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Tom Cope Dies
AUBURN, Ala. - Tom Cope, 77, of Auburn, Ala., died Oct. 11, 1998, at the East Alabama Medical Center.
Cope was born July 24, 1921, in Akron, Ohio, and earned his bachelor's degree in agriculture from Auburn University in 1942. He served in England and France as a field artillery officer during World War II, from 1944-45, then earned his master's degree in soil science from Auburn in 1946. After completing the Ph.D. in soil science from Cornell University in 1950, he returned to Auburn as an associate professor. He was promoted to full professor in 1959.
At Auburn, Cope was in charge of agronomy experiment fields and the soil testing laboratory. He also served as chairman of the fertilizer recommendations committee for the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station and the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service.
Cope also served as a visiting scientist with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines where he was in charge of the fertility research program from 1978 to 1979. In 1984, he served as a visiting soil scientist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Guam in Mangiloa, Guam. There he supervised soil testing and fertility research programs for Guam and Micronesia.
Cope's research program at Auburn and abroad focused on soil fertility and crop production with a specialty in response of various crops to fertilization in soil test calibration and fertilizer recommendations. He also conducted research on cropping systems and crop rotations, including the use of legumes as a nitrogen source. He retired from the AU Department of Agronomy and Soils in 1984.
In addition to his academic and scientific contributions, Cope was involved in his community. He was a deacon at First Baptist Church of Auburn and was active in many local service and civic organizations, including the Auburn Kiwanis Club and the Camelia Club of Auburn and Opelika.
He is survived by his wife, Norma Watkins Cope of Auburn: three sons; eight grandchildren; two brothers; and two sisters.
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