Carl Copeland

Carl Wayne Copeland, 81, passed away on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Mary’s Campus in Rochester, Minnesota. Funeral services will be held on Friday, April 10 at 10:30 AM at McCabe Methodist Church. Burial will be at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Thursday, April 9 from 6-7 PM at McCabe Methodist Church. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service at the church.

Carl was born on September 26, 1944, to Carl Monroe and Jennie Ruth (Strickland) Copeland in Alexandria, Louisiana. Carl’s parents were temporarily living in Alexandria awaiting his father’s departure to Europe during World War II. Carl’s father was deployed before Carl’s birth occurred and his mother was close to delivering; so after his birth, Carl and his mother returned to the Copeland home in Williams, South Carolina. His mother passed away suddenly when Carl was about 5 months old. His father could not get back to the states for Carl’s mother’s funeral, so Carl never saw his father until sometime after he was a year old. After his mother’s death, Carl lived with his grandmother and also with his father, when his father returned from overseas. When his grandmother passed away, Carl’s father was traveling back and forth to Charleston for work; so he was unable to care for him but saw him often. Carl lived with aunts and uncles and their families. Sometime during his junior years, when his father remarried and had a stable home for the family, Carl returned to live with his father at Lady’s Island, which is a Sea Island connected to Beaufort, SC, by a long bridge. Other than with his father, his favorite years were when he was living with an aunt and uncle and their three children in Summerville, SC. He always said he was treated as just part of the family.

After Carl moved to Lady’s Island, he attended Beaufort High School and graduated in 1962. He drove a large school bus on the islands beginning at the age of 15 and continued to drive bus until he graduated at the age of 17.

He joined the Air Force in May of 1963 and was discharged in May of 1967. After completion of his basic training in the Air Force in 1964, he was assigned to Detachment 14 1st Combat Evaluation Group, which was part of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) in Bismarck, ND. Carl said that, after he received his orders to report to ND, he had to look on a map to see where ND was located. While traveling to ND by bus, he kept asking people where all of the trees were, because South Carolina has lots of trees. Carl had several Temporary Duty deployments during his service time in Bismarck. His last and longest deployment was to Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, during the Vietnam War.

Carl met the love of his life, Joann Olmsted, on his 20th birthday in 1964. The day after meeting her, he asked her to go with him to a local car racing track. He liked going to the races, so he knew about most of the cars. He couldn’t believe that Joann picked all of the winning cars by color. Carl and Joann were married October 23, 1965. Joann always said they got married because Carl had such a southern drawl she didn’t know what he asked her. They celebrated their 60th anniversary in October 2025. They had two children, Brian and Steve.

After Carl was discharged from the Air Force, he attended Bismarck Junior College (now Bismarck State College) where he graduated in 1969 with honors. He began working as a programmer and systems analyst for the Provident Life Insurance Company for many years, until the company was bought out and the work force was reduced. He then worked for the National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) in Mandan, ND, as a systems analyst until his retirement in 2007.

Carl was a “gear head” through and through. There was very little he didn’t know about cars. He always had a passion for classic cars and was involved with many car organizations. He was a member of the North Dakota Street Rod Association, where he served as the South Central Director for many years. He also belonged to the Pioneer Auto Club, Roughrider Chevy Association Club, Minnesota Street Rod Association, and the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association. Carl and Joann spent a lot of time at cruise nights around Bismarck and Mandan and weekends attending car shows and functions with their yellow 1937 Chevy Master Coupe, affectionately known as “Tweety.” They drove to shows all over ND, SD, MT, WY, CO, IA, and MN and met many nice people along the way. They were proud to say they “drove” their car and did not “trailer” it.

Carl will be deeply missed by his wife of 60 years, Joann; his children, Brian and Steve; his sisters-in-law, Judy (Steve) Nelson, Vicky (Allen) Weisenburger, Gloria Olmsted and Shirley Olmsted; his very special stepbrother, Mitchell (Phoebe) Garris; his special cousins, George (Bonnie) Burbage, Parker (Sharon) Burbage, Mary Lynn (Keith) Britt and many nieces and nephews.

Carl was preceded in death by his parents, Carl M. and Jennie Ruth (Strickland) Copeland; his stepmother, Edna Garris Copeland; his father and mother-in-law, Charles Olmsted Sr. and Katherine Kary Olmsted; his brothers-in-law, Ronald Olmsted, Charles Olmsted Jr., Gary Olmsted and sister-in-law, Darlene Olmsted.