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The couple has four children, Harry, Richard, Kathleen and Timothy. They mark 56 years of marriage and have 15 grandchildren.

Cope, 76, began his business career as an assistant manager with a local G.C. Murphy Co. store. Then he spent the next 26 years working for Potter-McCune corporate food chain.

"I left Potter-McCune in 1980 and then formed JMJ (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) Consultants," he said.

Cope included his wife in the firm and they traveled to Colorado, California, Oklahoma and Texas on business consulting work for the next 20 years.

In between, spirituality continued to play an increasingly vital role in both their lives. In 1974, Cope volunteered at a minimum-security prison in Greensburg through the Cursillo movement, where three or four men "brought a short course on Christianity to the prison."

The state closed the doors on that program in 1980. Cope explained the Cursillo movement came to the United States in 1957 and began holding programs in prison. It was eventually replaced with another ecumenical Christian program.

Cope's spiritual formation continued as he worked from 1984 through 1991 with a group called Second Harvest, securing food for the needy, food that would otherwise have been wasted.

The pair continued going on spiritual retreats.

By 1980, "we were ready," Cope said. "We left five acres of ground and two homes in Long Branch, our own and my mother's home."

The couple moved in with Mary's aging mother in Monessen. "Since we had no property to care for, we were free to continue our ministry," said Cope, who quoted St. John of the Cross, "When you cut the string, the bird is free to fly."

From that freedom grew the St. Dismas Prison Ministry.

Cope pointed to the cross he wears and the one given to prisoners. On one side is printed "Christ is counting on you."

Jack O'Toole, of Fayette City, and John Veliky, of Donora, both have shared in the prison ministry that Cope established. O'Toole worked with Cope between 1985 to 1989. Veliky took part in 1996 and 1997. O'Toole recalled "the amazing look on prisoners' faces, moved by what had occurred at the retreat."

Veliky said of prison visits, "We had to check in and out. We were under lock and key at Mass." He recalled that volunteers were not afraid. Both men said they had "good memories" of the prison ministry. Both have since retired because of health reasons.

The Copes are preparing for another year in prison-ministry retreats, which usually begin in March and run through November.

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