GENEVA, Ohio — Life goes on in Geneva — but you can tell something's missing.
Joe Cooper, a former Pymatuning school resource officer and longtime Geneva police officer, has died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
His public funeral service is scheduled for Sunday at Geneva High School — with calling hours scheduled to start at 12 p.m. and the funeral service set for 5 p.m.
"I'm not sure Geneva High School is going to be big enough," close friend and fellow school resource officer Chris Cahill told News 5.
Deputy Cahill said the two first met in grade school and would go on to spend 25 years together at Geneva Police — both as officers — before mirroring each other and becoming school resource officers.
"His dedication is unmatched," Cahill said. "You could take all of the cops and put them all together and you wouldn't make a Joe."
Cahill said Cooper had a way of connecting with kids that is almost impossible to replicate.
"The things he would do, buying shoes for the kids that didn't have tennis shoes, buying their sporting equipment because they couldn't afford it," Cahill said. "That's just who he was. It was never a problem."
"The way he dealt with people, his professionalism, his demeanor among us fellow safety forces, but with the community, the children he interacted with at the schools," Geneva Fire Department Chief Dale Arkenburg added.
For more than 20 years, Irene Hrisko greeted Cooper as a regular morning customer at Honeybees Restaurant.
"He's like a saint that's never been mentioned," Hrisko said.
On more than one occasion, Hrisko remembers Cooper suggesting she hire certain teenagers to help guide them toward a better future.
"He will introduce these kids to me, 'Hey Irene, give him a chance, teach him about work ethic' — he always believed in second chances," Hrisko said.
David Palinkas, owner of Beverage Depot, is one of the many people Cooper mentored. Not necessarily one of the students who needed a second chance, but one of the many who benefited from Cooper's leadership.
"I was probably 12 or 13 when I met Joe," Palinkas said. "He was a second dad growing up to me — kind of took some of his business aspects — how he treated me as an employee — and how I pass it on to my employees to this day."
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
