© 2020 Larry Bowman
© 2020 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Volume 20, Number 1, 2020 (Summer) — Index | From the Supreme to the Three Person’d God: Seven Levels of Total Deity |
In the 65-year history of Urantia Brotherhood/ Urantia Book Fellowship, there probably has been only one time when General Council lost three of its members from death in a very short time span. That moment occurred from the tail end of 2019 to early April 2020, with the passing of Emilio Coppola, Avi Dogim, and Stephen Dreier.
Emilio Coppola died suddenly on December 29 from surgery for an aortic tear. He was 55. A few weeks earlier, Emilio had resigned as Treasurer of The Urantia Book Fellowship, effective with the upcoming midwinter meeting in Austin, Texas.
Emilio was elected to a vacancy on General Council in January 2008 and to a nine-year term in summer ’09, at which time he became Treasurer. He continued to serve in that position until his resignation. In 2010 he also became Treasurer of Urantia University, and for a number of years he also served as chair of the ad hoc IT Committee on the Fellowship.
Emilio was a licensed financial professional and owned a firm that managed investments and consulted with companies on their financial options for funding their businesses.
A resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Emilio is survived by his wife Melanie and three children.
Following an Executive Committee meeting in Newark in fall 2012, Emilio played host of sorts to three fellow Executive Committee members as they attempted to do some sightseeing in Manhattan, just as Hurricane Sandy came to call. Along with Andrea Barnes, Tony Finstad, and Cristina Seaborn, the four tried to hold out in a Midtown 12th-floor hotel room. But when they learned that the bridges off the island were about to be closed, they realized they quickly had to leave New York City. Emilio drove everyone to his mother’s house in Westchester County, NY, where they stayed for another night or two. Catching flights back home for the three out-of-towners was now a problem, as the NYC airports were closed. Finally, Emilio graciously drove all three to Philadelphia, from where they caught flights back to their home states.
Thanks to the absentmindedness of John Hales, who almost always called Emilio “Mario,” this name came to be his alternative ID. At a retreat during a General Council meeting near Los Angeles Airport in February 2013, Emilio/ Mario took advantage of his Italian-American heritage to share a story about his past that he said he was not proud of. During the retreat, each Councilor was to tell three stories, one of which was not true, and we were to guess which one was a lie. When it came Emilio’s turn, he went to elaborate precautions by making sure that no hotel staff were in the room to hear his story, and then to have the doors shut so that no one would come in while he was speaking. He then proceeded to tell his three stories. In one, he said he had been a male stripper. I don’t remember what another story was, but the one that took the longest to tell was so dramatic, I began to wonder if this was true. Emilio said that, as a young man, he was asked by family members to “take care of” someone who was a “problem” to the rest of them. In other words, at the family’s request, Emilio was forced to kill someone to get rid of him.
As he told the story, I hoped and hoped that this was not a true story, but as he went on, he spoke so convincingly, I began to wonder if he had really done this. When he was through and it came time to reveal which story was a lie, he broke into a hearty laugh as he confessed that this rather preposterous story was indeed untrue. He won the award that evening for telling the big-gest lie.
Emilio missed his calling as an actor.
IN 1964, Avi Dogim was at dockside in New York with his friend, Mark Sztejnberg, awaiting the arrival of Mark’s Russian- born cousin, Lila, who was coming from Poland, where she had lived for five years. When Avi caught sight of her coming down the gangplank, he commented, “Mark, you never told me you have such a pretty cousin!” It was love at first sight.
Avi was born in 1946 in what was then Palestine, before the state of Israel was created. He was 14 when he came to the US. After he and Lila were married and began raising two daughters, he had an extensive career in vocational services for Jewish immigrants, while Lila became a doctor specializing in general medicine, geriatrics, and administration. A New York Times article in June 1990 quoted Avi as saying that it was fairly easy to find clerical jobs for refugees, “but it’s tough to place engineers, computer programmers, scientists, and teachers.”
In 1984 Avi became a member of the Fellowship’s Charter Committee (now Membership). He became chair four years later when he was elected to General Council and continued in that role until 1997, when he became Publications Chair. (I served on Charter during Avi’s last two years as chair.) In 2000 he was elected to the first of two three-year terms as President. He went off the Council in 2012, just as his wife became President. In January 2016 he was chosen to fill a vacancy on GC and remained a Councilor until his death this February, due to a recurrence of cancer. Avi and Lila lived in a high-rise condo in Cliffside Park, NJ, overlooking the Hudson River and, beyond, Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
In spring 2008 Avi and Lila conducted a tour to Israel for Urantia Book readers. Several participants remember Avi’s brother and sister- in-law, who live in Israel, joining the others in Galilee and bringing along the best strawberries anyone had ever eaten. A niece (who is a UB reader), her husband, and their two children also showed up in a couple of places around the country.
In 2012 Avi joined Chuck Burton and John Hales on a weeklong bike ride along Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany. Lila also participated by driving her car and doing some sightseeing each day along the way. At night she and Avi would stay at B&Bs, while Chuck and John would pitch their tents at designated campgrounds—along with about 500 other bikers. Each morning Avi would ride along with the guys for a while and then would say, “Well, I’ve got to get some exercise.” And his wiry body would whirl off, leaving the others in the dust. Avi had been an avid bike rider for years.
Google Maps shows that the distance from the Dogims’ condo tower to the one in Fort Lee, NJ, where Steve and Bobbie Dreier live, is just 1.2 miles. Knowing Barbara (her real name) as I do, she likely frequently walks that distance. Steve Dreier probably did not. I understand that their apartment looks out on George Washington Bridge.
Bobbie taught grade school for 37 years. Steve was a chemistry professor and later chair of the chemistry department at New York City Technical College in Brooklyn.
At the time of his passing, Steve had served on General Council for over 40 years. This, however, is not a record; John Hales is at least one person who has served much longer. Steve was first elected a Councilor in 1979 and immediately approved as a member of the Education Committee. In ’85 he became chair of the Charter Committee, to be succeeded three years later by Avi. Steve in turn became Judicial Chair. Steve became President in 1991 and served two terms. Afterwards he became Education Chair, but just a year later (1998) he became Vice President when Mo Siegel resigned to become a Trustee of Urantia Foundation. Steve served as Secretary to Avi’s two terms as President and then was off Executive Committee for a term before becoming Secretary again in 2009. He was still serving in that position when he “graduated.”
Over the years Bobbie occasionally ran for General Council but was never elected until winter 2014, when she was chosen to fill a vacancy—along with youngster Geoffrey Theiss. It was satisfying to many fellow Councilors to see one with many years of experience in the movement chosen alongside an enthusiastic newcomer. In summer 2015 both her term and her husband’s were up, and they firmly said they were going off. But at the last minute, they both decided to run again and were each elected to nine-year terms. A year or so later, I overheard Steve tell others on EC that his term was for either three or six years—he couldn’t remember which. I told him he had been elected for nine years. He exclaimed, “Oh, hell, I’ll never live that long!”
Sadly, that turned out to be true. On April 1 of this year he started throwing up, and the next day his son Marc, an ER doctor, took him by ambulance to the hospital. The following day he was diagnosed with Covid-19. He died the evening of April 5, with Marc holding his hand. He was 79. Steve told his son that night, “I’m going to take a little nap and when I wake up I’ll either see you, or be somewhere else.” Bobbie was on the phone with Marc when Steve took his last breath. Marc later said, “Mom, I’ve seen a lot of people die, but I never saw anyone facing death as peacefully as Dad.”
Among the many tributes to Steve was this one from Angie Thurston, who said, in part: “Steve taught me what it meant to be a cosmic citizen. I remember him sharing his aspiration to be an associate to a recording angel, and the steps he was taking in this life to prepare himself for that position. This had a lot to do with dependability, accuracy, and trustworthiness. … I got to know Steve best when he mentored and supported me in chairing IC’14. In addition to sharing his wisdom, I got to see him take on the minutia of thankless logistical tasks so that I could focus on the bigger vision and practicing relational leadership. He did this on purpose so that I could learn. I, in turn, learned something about selfless service from him. I hope to pass on this kind of mentorship to someone someday.” Calling Steve one of the wisest people she had ever known, Angie concluded, “I look forward to learning from him in eternity, and seeing him take up his growing responsibilities in the vast school of the universe.”
Steve was known for the many talks he gave over the years at conferences and retreats. Marc once asked him why he didn’t write his speeches, and Steve said he wanted to speak to the hearts of those who assembled, that he hoped to share personally what he understood and help bring them closer to God. The speech by Steve that I remember the most was one at a plenary at Summer Study Session at Lake Forest College sometime in the ‘90s. Steve used George Gershwin’s song, “Our Love is Here to Stay,” as his theme. In it he said that this was the last song that Gershwin ever wrote, as he was dying from a brain tumor. As I recall, Steve surmised that Gershwin knew he was about to die, so this was his farewell song. What I particularly remember is that Steve finished his speech by giving an a cappella rendition of the song and received a roaring response. His singing was not of the caliber of Francyl Gawryn, Barbara Hester, or Sally Annabella, but it was heartfelt. Last summer’s SSS at Techny Towers ended with a discussion about this very song and included a recording of Dinah Washington singing it. Afterwards I went up to Steve and commented on his speech of years earlier. He was pleased that I remembered it.
On the cover of this issue of Fellowship Herald , Stephen Sawyer has created a drawing of Steve Dreier, Emilio Coppola, and Avi Dogim in a canoe. Steve Sawyer could not have known at the time that Steve and Bobbie Dreier took their first (and perhaps only) canoe trip in the summer of 1984 after the conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin. The accompanying photo of that adventure in Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota shows them along with three other former Presidents of the Brotherhood/ Fellowship: Paul Snider, John Hales, and David Elders. Of those three, only John is still living. Paul, David, and Steve have all died within the past year. Paddle on, gentlemen.
| Volume 20, Number 1, 2020 (Summer) — Index | From the Supreme to the Three Person’d God: Seven Levels of Total Deity |