Ben Strand/ Winonan

Winona State University is mourning the loss of long time employee Todd Copeman, 46, who passed away on April 7.

Copeman worked as an assistant webmaster at Winona State and was known for his dedication to helping others and hard work.

“Todd would give his shirt off his back for any co-worker,” Robin Honken said, who worked with Copeman for six years.

Copeman was a people person, and his music styles reflected his mood for the day.

“You could tell his mood by how loud he was listening to his music, what kind of music he was listening to,” Honken said. “Todd loved his music and his books. He was always recommending good books to me.”

Copeman played a big role in leading Winona State’s WordPress efforts, and he is the reason university organizations have blogs.

Another one of Copeman’s co-workers, Zach Boudreau, said Copeman was a major component as to why Winona State looks the way it does today digitally.

“Todd is the one who initially started the blog Winona has,” Boudreau said.

Boudreau said Copeman was very creative in terms of his skill set and was an expert with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

Copeman was a selfless person, offering help where it was needed.

“Todd didn’t hoard information. He liked to share it and inform other people. He was always good with people,” Lori Mjoen, who also worked with Copeman, said.

Todd was a big Sci-fi and Star Trek fan according to Mjoen, and his office was a nursery of Star Trek and Star Wars figures.

Copeman had a huge impact on the students and student workers who worked with him, Boudreau said.

Bourdreau told the story of Copeman’s effect on Kate Effertz, a new hire who was not sure if she should stay.

Kate Effertz, who was hired in marketing communications, has only been working at Winona State for about six months, according to Boudreau. Copeman was working with her and asked if she was going to stick around. She was not sure why he was asking, and he told her he hoped she would because she is really talented.

Effertz was hired fresh out of college, and she said what Copeman said to her was exactly what she needed at that time, according to Boudreau.

“It just shows what a personable guy Todd was,” Boudreau said. “He was always trying to help people out where he could.”

Mjoen said she cannot take Copeman off of her Microsoft Lynk group because it is hard to accept that he is gone.

“It said he’s been away nine days,” Mjoen said.“It’s tough, but I don’t want to remove him from my group or distribution lists because then I have to admit he’s gone and not coming back.”

Copeman was a huge family man. He is survived by two children, Jessica and Maddie, his wife Ginny, and her two kids.

He treated his step kids as if they were his own. He’d do anything for his kids and family, biological or not, according to Boudreau.

Mjoen said, “Todd will live on in all the people whose lives he touched.”