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Visionary gone but not forgotten

The sales chief for the company that built Spring Hill died 14 years ago. Now, the new library bears his name.

By CHANDRA BROADWATER
Published June 25, 2006

SPRING HILL - Even after his death, Harold Zopp continues to welcome the residents of Spring Hill.

Last week, silver brushed-metal lettering was placed on the front of an overhang at the entrance of the new Spring Hill Branch Library - officially naming the building after him.

"Harold G. Zopp Memorial Library," it reads.

The former sales chief for the Deltona Corp. helped start the community of Spring Hill. He greeted the first residents, growing what was more than 20,000 acres of scraggly land in west Hernando County into an area that is now home to nearly 90,000 people.

Zopp worked for Deltona for 15 years. He arrived in Florida from West Virginia in the 1950s, after leaving a career as a DuPont Co. chemist.

He worked for several housing developments before joining Deltona. In 1967, he became the sales manager at the new community of Spring Hill, and later he was named the development's general manager.

He retired in 1982, when the company closed its Hernando County operation. Zopp died in 1992 at the age of 74, several months after the community's 25th anniversary.

"He would have been so honored to have this library named after him," said Barbara Zopp-Haynes, his wife, who still resides in Spring Hill. "It's beautiful."

She met Harold not long after he came to the county. They wed in 1970.

"He would always say, 'In the year 2000, there will be 100,000 people living in Spring Hill,' " she said. "Now look at the area. He was a pioneer with a vision."

The $2-million, 10,600-square-foot library now bearing Zopp's name is almost triple the size of the library it replaces, the Little Red Schoolhouse Branch on Kenlake Avenue.

The Deltona Corp. also built the former library and previously used it as an office.

The new building opened in March. It boasts a 10-station computer lab, a 100-person meeting room, wireless Internet access, a kids reading room, a teen reading room and a screened-in outdoor reading area with wicker seating.

But the naming of the library, along with getting it built, have not been without pitfalls.

A year after his death, county commissioners voted to name the yet-to-be-built Spring Hill library after Zopp. Over the years, the project was postponed and eventually downsized when money ran short.

The 1993 resolution went by the wayside.

In March, commissioners voted to name the library after Frank Bierwiler Jr., a county charity founder and former sheriff's spokesman. The former law enforcement officer died in January at 67.

Zopp's name would grace the entrance to the library meeting room, they decided.

When Zopp-Haynes heard about the decision, she figured the current commission forgot the 13-year-old declaration. She got in touch with County Administrator Gary Kuhl to explain. She also had the original resolution.

Current commissioners decided to honor the decision of the previous commission - which included Commissioner Nancy Robinson. In April, they agreed the library would be named after Zopp.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled at the library on July 10. Zopp-Haynes plans to attend with her former husband's three sons, James, David and Thomas.

"The family is very honored," Zopp-Haynes said. "It is extremely fitting that a library would be named in his honor and memory. That's a place of development, learning and solitude. And it's open to all ages."

Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.

[Last modified June 25, 2006, 04:12:02]