John Popa, whose engineering career centered around electricity generation, was wired differently.
That’s not a knock on the amazing life of Popa, and he’d readily admit the same today if a traffic accident had not taken his life. In fact, he writes in detail about being born with “an extra battery pack” in a remarkable 231-page autobiography that he penned mainly for family consumption.
“I’m still tormented by thinking all the time, can’t sleep much, and I have this extra battery,” he wrote in the book’s epilogue.
Popa was an enigma whose high-energy persona benefited Leelanau County. When death called Friday he was the most senior member of the Leelanau County Road Commission, and the second- longest serving member of the Lake Leelanau Lake Association and the county Parks and Recreation Commission. For years he was a mainstay on the Leland Dam Authority.
Popa was 79, with no sign of letting up. “He did a lot for me,” said Thad Popa, who recalled being hired by Consumers Energy upon the recommendation of his brother. “He never slowed down. This happened too quickly.”
John Popa was the driver of an UTV that collided with a vehicle on a county road in Bingham Township. He survived the accident and looked to be on his way toward a difficult recovery until blood clots developed. A full obituary appears in this edition of the Enterprise.
Both of his parents also died in a car accident — near Grand Rapids in 1999.
Much of Popa’s life involved the health of Lake Leelanau. He and his wife, Gayle, live on the east shoreline of the south basin near two of his brothers’ residences; a third brother, Dave, resides across the lake.
“You couldn’t slow him. He had ideas and he kept going. He liked to get out and see people, whether playing euchre at the Cedar snowmobile club or with his cousins at uncle Leo’s. You couldn’t hold him down,” Dave Popa said.
Brother Thad’s wife is Nancy Popa, president of the Lake Leelanau Lake Association.
“He was very instrumental in setting the gauges for the dam. He spearheaded a big initiative to put fish cribs in the lake to enhance the fishery,” she said. “He’s been a big presence on our board for a very long time, and was very passionate about preserving the lake.”
Wayne Wunderlich is a founding member of the lake association.
“He’s one of those guys who asks a lot of questions and seeks answers, even when he had the answers. He was always stepping up, and he was a valuable asset to the community and the lake association …. There was never politics in what he did. He was about the community and about the people,” Wunderlich said.
Odds are good that you’ll be talking to a distant John Popa relative when conversing with any lifelong Cedar resident. His family lineage includes Peplinskis, Brzezinskis, Gallas and Mikowskis.
In 1941 John and Dorothy Popa joined Stanley and Alvena Popa in a double wedding ceremony at Holy Rosary Church that also united 26 siblings of the Popa and Galla farming families. John and Dorothy had seven children, with John’s namesake keeping the couple busy.
As an example, John tied a water hose to an inner tube and set out to walk across the bottom of Lake Leelanau as a skinny 13-year-old. He tried to hug the bottom by wearing weighted shoes and filling cans with rocks, then settled on hooking a set of old tire chains around his waist. But after jumping off a raft and settling on the bottom he learned that water pressure made it impossible for him to breathe. He jumped up and grabbed the pipe frame under the raft for dear life while freeing the chains and gasping for air.
“I struggled to the point of exhaustion,” Popa wrote. “I did not tell anyone about this frightening, near-death experience and moved on.”
Another close call with death led him to college. After halfheartedly attending Northwestern Michigan College and Ferris State College he fell head over heals for Gayle. They married 10 months later in 1963.
While an apprentice with Ware and Sons Mechanical he fell 19 feet from a ladder, which led to a medical discharge from the Army Reserve and a decision to attend Michigan Technical University through the GI Bill — and to take engineering classes seriously.
His degree resulted in a successful career as an engineer at both coal-burning and nuclear energy plants owned by Consumers Energy, at one time overseeing 25 employees. He also worked for General Motors, Grand Traverse County, and Cherryland Electric.
Popa found his career challenging and time spent outdoors joyful. He and a friend bought property and started a deer camp on Drummond Island, where a local bar is planning a remembrance party in his honor. He was an avid deer and snowshoe hare hunter.
Popa was a regular attendee at county and township meetings, where his underwhelming appearance proved a contrast to his level of knowledge. In June he wrote an op-ed piece for the Leelanau Enterprise stating that solar energy panels would be inefficient at the county government center. The piece drew praise and opposition.
As an engineer and politician, John Popa signed his name to hundreds of documents using a design that said much about the man. His signature was found on a letter demanding that a fellow road commissioner resign after the man was recorded stating racist remarks.
John would draw a vertical line, then start the oval portion of the P in Popa from the middle of that line. He formed the oval and kept going, ending it above the “J” of his Christian name. First and last names became one.
The signature signaled that whatever John Popa did or said, he was all in.
