Leonard W. Copple, 68, passed away May 17, 2010. Len was a native son of Arizona and raised in Yuma. He and his wife Jean lived in Tucson while he attended college and law school at the UofA. After graduation in 1965, he began active duty in the US Army, serving as a member of the Judge Advocate General's Corps and volunteering for service in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and completed service in 1969. Len and Jean then moved to Tempe where he worked for Phoenix law firms for five years. He then commenced a solo practice in Tempe, which he continued for 30 more years. In addition to his law practice, he was active in volunteer legal activities, taught legal writing at the ASU College of Law and was a frequent lecturer at trial advocacy seminars, served on the Maricopa County Judicial Nominating Commission and the State Bar Professionalism and Peer Review Committees, and was the Chairman and a Hearing Officer for the Disciplinary Hearing Committee. He also served as a Judge pro tem in Maricopa County Superior Court for ten years. Even while practicing law full-time, Leonard had a parallel career as a community volunteer and public servant. He was a member of the Tempe Salvation Army Advisory Board and a board member and President for Tempe Centers for Habilitation, which in 1985 named its vocational training center building after him. Leonard and Jean were early and active members of the Tempe Sister City Organization; Len served as Treasurer and played an important role in organizing the annual Sister City Festival and Way Out West Octoberfest events that fueled the organization's early growth. He was a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission, served as Chairman of the Vision Tempe Task Force, at various times he was a member of the City of Tempe Bond Committee, the Tempe Union High School Superintendent's Advisory Council, and the selection committee for Tempe Presiding Judge. He also served from 1992-1993 as chairman of the Downtown Tempe Steering Advisory Committee, which became the Downtown Tempe Community. He was the recipient with his wife Jean of Tempe Leadership's 1994 Community Leader Award, and the Tempe Community Council named Len a "Tempe Treasure." He also served on the City Council. Len's tenure on the council coincided with significant growth and development in Tempe, and he took particular pride in the evolution of the downtown area and his contributions to the Town Lake project and in particular the installation of the light rail system. He was a Board Member for the Valley Metro Regional Public Transportation Authority and played a key role in securing federal funding for the East Valley Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility, the Tempe Transportation Center, and the Central Phoenix/East Valley Light Rail Project. As Chairman of the Tempe City Council Transportation Committee, he led the implementation of Tempe's free bus pass program for youth and ASU students. He was instrumental in bringing the annual Rock 'N Roll Marathon and Ironman Triathlon events to Tempe. In recent years he was a board member and Treasurer of the Friends of the Tempe Center for the Arts. He is survived by his wife Jean, a brother, a son, two daughters and six grandchildren.