John E. Kopf

John E. Kopf died on June 10, 2007 surrounded by his family. He was 90 years old. Visiting will be 2-4 and 7-9 pm on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at Gray Memorial Funeral Home, 12 Springfield Ave., Cranford. The funeral will be on Friday, June 15, 2007 at 11 am at Cranford United Methodist Church. He was born in Newark in 1916 to Emil and Eva Kopf. The family moved to Roselle Park in 1923 where he graduated Roselle Park High School valedictorian in 1934. He graduated Newark College of Engineering in 1941. After marraige in 1950, he moved to Cranford. He was an extremely devoted and loving family man and leaves his wife of 56 years, Alice, son John Jr., daughter-in-law, Joan and 2 grandchildren, Loretta Alice and John III. He is survived by one sister, Helen Bruce. He was predeceased by 2 sisters, Grace Anderson and Jean Reichert who both died in 2006. He worked for 48 years, where he served as Supervisory Engineer in the Electrical Engineering and Machine Tools Control Department, Manager of the Mechanized Systems Department, General Manager of the Clifton Factory, Research Manager for the Central Research Laboratory and Supervisor of Standards Engineering. He taught at NJIT in the Division of Continuing Education for 32 years. He was a devout Christian, active his whole life in the Methodist Church in Roselle Park and, after 1950, Cranford with many responsibilities at different times including Lay Leader, Missions Chairman, Chairman of Council on Ministries, Trustee, Boy Scout Leader and choir member. One of his great lifelong interests was the history and operations of trolley cars. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Cranford United Methodist Church John Kopf Memorial Fund.