March 22, 1944 ~
May 5, 2015
Mike passed away peacefully in St. Joseph's Hospice on May 4th, after a five year battle with prostate cancer. He was the youngest of three sons born to Marie and R. D. Koppenhaver in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He met and married the love of his life, the former Barbara K Climie, at U.N.D. in 1969. After working in New York and California, they moved to Thunder Bay in 1977 to raise their two children. When Mike crossed the border he couldn't speak a word of Canadian but quickly picked up the lingo working for George Hill and Intercity Supply. Mike loved his job as Sales Manager and many of his customers became his life-long friends; Tom Trizpit, Dave Gracey, Peter Simpson, Jack Shedden and Owen Littlefield. After retiring from Intercity he looked forward to spending summers at Silver Islet with his family and travelling with Barb in the winter. Mike was passionate about racquetball and football and his Number #1 NFL Team was the Green Bay Packers. Thanks to our neighbours, the Samuelson's, he was able to fulfill a life-long dream of watching his beloved Packers thoroughly trounce the Lions on Lambeau Field. Mike loved egg salad sandwiches, 60's music, live theatre, golf, scrabble , bocce, and words with friends which he loved to play on-line with his son Chris in Calgary. He entertained all his friends with his silly songs, jingles and puns. Obtaining his Canadian citizenship was especially meaningful to him. His children were his pride and joy, especially his 5 year old granddaughter Sydnee, who was the apple of his eye. He will be sadly missed by his loving wife, Barb, his children Kirstin and granddaughter, Sydnee (at home), son Chris (Calgary) and brother-in-law, Bill (Thunder Bay) brother Bruce (Mary) Thief River Falls, MN, brother Dick (Donna) Lenexa, KS and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins in the United States. In keeping with Mike's wishes, there will be no formal funeral service, but a celebration of his life will be held at the Jaun Camp at Silver Islet on Saturday, June 27th at 2:00pm. If so desired, donations may be made to St. Joseph's Hospice, TBRHSC Cancer Foundation or the National Prostate Network (Thunder Bay).
Our thanks go out to The Thunder Bay Cancer Centre, The Community Care Access Centre, the dedicated nurses of Revera Home Health Care, especially Brandon Harris for his exceptional care and compassion and the nurses and staff of St. Joseph's Hospice. And an extra special thank you to his best friend Rudy Jaun, without whose daily help and assistance we would not have survived this very difficult time and to Ken and Maryanne McCuaig (Winnipeg) and Bruce and Joanne Beatty (Lindsay) for their frequent phone calls.
