Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 50
Chamber Honors Former Mayor Andy Brown • Community Mourns Former Mayor Mark Wolfe • H-E-B Plans to Prominently Mark its Territory • DART Station’s Decor Didn’t Meet Expectations
Chamber Honors Former Mayor Andy Brown
Wes Mays met Andy Brown in 2011, during Mays’ initial campaign for a seat on the Coppell City Council. The former mayor asked the first-time candidate to meet him at a gym on Denton Tap Road. When Mays arrived, he asked the young lady at the front desk, “Where can I find Andy Brown?”
She didn’t understand his question. “Oh, it’s up the road about six blocks,” she said.
Of course, Mays was not looking for a park. He was looking for the man himself, who was Coppell’s mayor from 1979 to 1985. Brown was also one of the four founding members of the Coppell Business Association, a precursor to the Coppell Chamber of Commerce. Mays shared that gym anecdote on Jan. 29, when the chamber presented Brown with the Cliff Long Leadership Award.
“I’m in awe of what Mayor Brown started in this community,” Coppell’s current mayor said during the chamber’s Annual Awards & Community Gala. “We would not be here tonight if it weren’t for what he and the leaders started back in the day when Coppell was still just a village or a town of a few thousand people.”
Like Mays, Mayor Pro Tem Don Carroll met Brown when he first ran for a City Council seat, and he also helped introduce Brown during last week’s gala.
“The legacy of Andy Brown is not confined to history or planning documents,” Carroll said. “It’s lived out in all of our neighborhoods, our parks, our public buildings, and in the everyday moments of the people who call Coppell home. His leadership laid the foundation for Coppell’s reputation as a family-friendly city with exceptional amenities and a high quality of life.”
Brown said Coppell’s population was only 1,300 when he moved here, and you could count the city’s businesses on one hand. A $16 million bond election in 1983 made it possible to build City Hall, the original Cozby Library, and several parks, including the three that bear Brown’s name.
“I like to see people walking in those parks,” Brown said in his acceptance speech. “I enjoy seeing children playing sports in the park. I enjoy driving by Kid Country and hearing the squealing. … We did that. I mean, my high-performance team, and subsequent City Council members, did this.”
Brown said he still takes pride in Coppell’s beauty compared to neighboring cities. “They don’t compare to Coppell,” he said. “They don’t even come close to Coppell.” The city-maintained landscaping, the bannisters on bridges, and the lack of pole signs were among the aesthetics that he said set Coppell apart. “Our tapestry was clean,” he said. “Our city was built new and fresh.”
Brown reminded everyone that the phrase “The City With a Beautiful Future” was once part of Coppell’s official logo. “I think the future’s now,” he said. “I think we’re pretty beautiful. I think we’re pretty classy.”
The City Council meetings that Mays oversees are quite different from the ones Brown led in the 1980s. I don’t want to take the time and effort to rehash events that happened when I was in elementary school, but suffice it to say that Brown’s tenure was tumultuous. He served three terms before losing to challenger Lou Duggan. Anyone who’s interested in the history can dig through the Cozby Library’s old copies of the Citizens’ Advocate and the Coppell News Weekly, rival newspapers with an adversarial relationship.
Brown merited a mention in a more modern publication, a 2015 book called Legendary Locals of Coppell. Author Shaun Jex wrote that Brown’s vision for the area directly south of City Hall was undone due to the results of the 1985 election.
“After Brown’s defeat, the city plan was changed, leading to a little-known quirk in city architecture,” Jex wrote. “It seems that under Brown’s plan, the city hall was designed to face out onto a row of shops that would create a new downtown area. However, the plan was later revised, and the land was turned into a housing development and a small park. The back of the building was changed to the front, meaning that city hall is now always facing backward.”
Brown made a veiled allusion to the controversial aspects of his public service near the end of his acceptance speech, when he mentioned his family.
“I want to thank my wife, Pam, and my daughter, Erin, for putting up with the trials and tribulations that came with this job,” he said. “You just kept on keeping on, and we didn’t have to run out of town when it was all over.”
Community Mourns Former Mayor Mark Wolfe
It is my sad duty to report the passing of Mark Wolfe, who was Coppell’s mayor from 1989 to 1993; he previously served two terms on the City Council, starting in 1985. Wolfe died on Jan. 21, at the age of 75.
According to his obituary, Wolfe and his wife, Kay Wolfe, founded RE/MAX DFW Associates in 1983. Initially, the two of them were the entire staff, but the real estate brokerage grew to five offices and, at its peak, engaged more than 300 agents.