Woody Koppel, Former School Board Member
Submitted By N.O.V.A. July 2005
Times Picayune 	11-28-1997


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Served in watchdog role Harwood "Woody" Koppel, who acquired large camps of
supporters and detractors during 18 years on the Orleans Parish School Board, died
Thursday at Touro Infirmary of myelofibrosis, an anemic condition that turns bone
marrow fibrous and affects the liver and spleen. He was 55.

Mr. Koppel, who took office in 1975, styled himself as a watchdog on the board,
dedicated to fiscal responsibility, discipline and good teaching. But because he
often was outspoken and sometimes strident, he had a hard time building a majority
to back him up. Critics called him defiant, divisive and ineffective.

"Being a watchdog and sometimes having to stand alone is hard to do," Mr. Koppel
once said in an interview.

He announced his zeal for reform early on, saying, "I want New Orleanians to know
that there is somebody there with the guts to dig and dig and dig and fight and
fight and fight until every dollar is accounted for and the public can be assured
it has been wisely spent."

In addition to grilling school officials on expenditures, Mr. Koppel lashed out at
the practice of awarding contracts to campaign supporters, calling it a "payola
system."

He initiated an anti-vandalism program, promoted the sale of surplus property,
argued for strenuous enforcement of the school system's discipline policy and
backed the state's sunshine law, which forces public bodies to hold open meetings.

He depicted himself as the board's conscience, and he drew support from people
disillusioned with the school system.

"He had a lot of people in the community, both white and black, who loved him,"
said William Reeves, who served on the board with Mr. Koppel. "His personality was
impulsive and outgoing. If he didn't like anybody, it was the complacent and the
well-to-do. He seemed to have a natural affinity for people out of power."

But he could be volatile, and that worked against him. Perhaps his most notable
outburst occurred during a 1990 federal court hearing. It caused a mistrial and
prompted a magistrate to hold Mr. Koppel in contempt.

"Put me in jail. I don't give a flying f--," Mr. Koppel told the magistrate when
he was prevented from giving his opinion in defense of white parents who said
white students were being beaten by black students at a junior high school.

"He was an obstruction to sound reform in the school system," former board member
Elizabeth Rack, who often clashed with Koppel, said in a 1992 interview. "He's the
kind of person that caused dissent among board members."

Mr. Koppel was quick to deny that allegation, saying, "I'm a team player, as long
as the team is not trying to throw the game."

His luck with the voters ran out in 1992. In a race to represent the board's newly
created 6th District, Mr. Koppel, who had held a citywide at-large seat, placed
last in a four-person field as voters turned out several incumbent board members.

A New Orleans native, Mr. Koppel was the son of a state legislator and a city
schoolteacher. While studying history at the University of the South in Sewanee,
Tenn., he became a Democratic Party activist, working in John Kennedy's 1960
presidential campaign.

After graduating in 1963, he taught in Jefferson Parish and England and traveled
around Europe. During that journey, he worked at the Cinecitta film complex on the
outskirts of Rome, serving as an apprentice to director Federico Fellini on
"Juliet of the Spirits," said his wife, Evelyn "Lyn" Queyrouze Koppel.

Mr. Koppel, who became a real-estate broker after returning to New Orleans, lost
races for Congress and City Council.

He was a former city president of the March of Dimes and a board member of Young
Audiences, a nonprofit organization that brings professional visual and performing
artists to schools.

Mr. Koppel was a former trustee of the University of the South, a former vestry
member at St. George's Episcopal Church and a former board member of St. George's
Episcopal School.

He was a former captain in the Army Medical Service Corps.

Besides his wife, survivors include a son, George Harwood Koppel, who lost a race
for a School Board seat himself this year, and three daughters, Ann Redlich Koppel
of New York City and Catherine Inez and Mary Emma Koppel.

A funeral will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at St. George's Episcopal Church, 4600
St. Charles Ave. Visitation will be today from 6 to 10 p.m. at Bultman Funeral
Home, 3338 St. Charles Ave., and Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m. at the church. Burial
will be in Metairie Cemetery.

Author: JOHN POPE Staff writer