Edward S. Bopp

Edward Sidney Bopp, Jr., known as Eddie Bopp (November 28, 1930 – September 16, 2015),^[1] was a pharmacist and lawyer from his native New Orleans, Louisiana, who served from 1977 to 1984 as a Democrat in the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 103 encompassing part of Orleans and St. Bernard parishes.^[2]

Career

Bopp graduated in 1949 from Alcee Fortier High School in New Orleans. From 1948 to 1952, he served in the United States Navy Reserve. He obtained a pharmacy degree in 1955 from the University of Mississippi at Oxford, Mississippi, and was engaged for a number of years in that profession, including assignments as an adjunct professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans. From 1967 to 1968, he was the state president of the Louisiana Pharmaceutical Association. In 1957, he studied at the American Institute of Banking. From 1956 to 1996, he was a director of the St. Bernard Bank and Trust Company (since Hibernia National Bank and Capital One).

In 1963, he received a Bachelor of Law degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law; his 1968, his Juris Doctorate from the same institution. He practiced law from 1963 to 1995, at which time he became a part-time attorney "at counsel".

Political life

From 1972 to 1977, Bopp was an elected member of the former Louisiana Board of Elementary Education for Louisiana's 1st congressional district.^[3] The governing body is now known as the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He won election to the board in 1972 by defeating Maxine Copelin, the wife of black political boss Sherman Copelin.

Early in 1977, Bopp won a special election to succeed Representative Richard Alvin Tonry, who was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana's 1st congressional district.

After six years in office, Bopp led a four-candidate field in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 22, 1983, with 5,631 votes (37.3 percent). Republican Edward Ripoll, the owner of the popular New Orleans bar, Bud Rip's, claimed the second position in the general election with 3,426 votes (22.7 percent). Trailing in third place, sixty-one votes behind Ripoll, was another Democrat, later Republican, businessman Kenneth L. Odinet, Sr., of Arabi in St. Bernard Parish. Finishing fourth was Richard Tonry, with 2,693 votes (17.8 percent). whom Bopp had succeeded six years earlier and who had been forced from Congress after only eight months in his seat because of a campaign finance scandal. In the second round of balloting, Ripoll unseated Bopp, 5,266 votes (53.1 percent) to 4,649 (46.9 percent).^[4]

In 1981, Bopp co-chaired a committee to investigate delays in the processing of Medicaid claims in Louisiana. The Medicaid processor was fined for the third time for alleged contract violations. Bopp reported that a rural clinic had collected only a third of the amount that it had billed Medicaid. "We have to insure that proper health care is available to the poor. The Computer Company is doing its best to solve the problem. But we've got hospitals and drug stores threatening to abandon the program. We can't have that." Bopp said. The company replied that the problem stemmed from a change in state forms and extra auditing procedures.^[5]

Personal life

A Roman Catholic, Bopp was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Knights Templar. He and his wife, the former Patricia Planche (May 1933 – December 1, 2016), had five children.^[6]

Early in his career, he was a member of the Junior Chamber International. He was active in the Masonic lodge at numerous levels of service. He was affiliated with the American Legion, Rotary International, Crime Stoppers, and the Boy Scouts of America. He was a former chairman of the board of the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum.^[3]

In addition to New Orleans, Bopp has like Odinet and Ripoll resided in Arabi. He also lived in Covington in St. Tammany Parish.^[7]

The Bopps left St. Bernard Parish with Hurricane Katrina and resettled in the French Quarter of New Orleans.^[6] He is interred at St. Patrick Cemetery #2 on Canal Street in New Orleans.

References