Tony Cope

Tony Cope is a native of Savannah, Georgia, who retired after thirty years in public education, serving as a teacher, head baseball coach, administrator, and creator and long-time Director of the award-winning environmental education facility, the Oatland Island Wildlife Center. As an adjunct to his work at Oatland, he participated in a ten year research project tagging and studying the habits of the American alligator, and traveled in East Africa and Central America. He was a member of a long list of State and local boards, was a member of Leadership Georgia, Leadership Savannah serving also as vice president of that organization, was for many years president of the local Multiple Sclerosis Society, served three terms as president of the Savannah Symphony and was featured in the book, "Movers and Shakers of Georgia".

Since moving to Ireland, he has received a Rotary Club award for leadership for work with the "Towards A Better Understanding" project, an exchange program involving high school students from Belfast and Cork City. Cope has kept his ties with Savannah through the writing of several articles for Savannah Magazine, as well as co-writing the script for, and performing in "Moon River-A Reflection" - an Irish tribute to Savannah native Johnny Mercer, whose centennial has been celebrated during 2009 in Savannah, across America and throughout the world. He has since co -written the scripts for and performed in two other highly acclaimed musical productions, "The Rat Pack and Friends" and "Tin Pan Alley: from Ragtime to Showtime".

Cope has authored six books, "On the Swing Shift: Building Liberty Ships in Savannah",published by the Naval Institute Press in 2009, "The House on Gaston: A Savannah Childhood", published in 2013 " Stealing Stones", published in 2015, "It's Not THAT Lincoln: The Curious Stories Behind Savannah's Historic Street Names" published in 2016; "Hail to the Chief, Y'all: Presidential Visits to Savannah, Georgia", published in 2017, "No Reservations: Savannah's Forgotten Hotels" published in 2021, the latter five published by The Abercorn Press. His Next project is "Animals and Me: My Furry, Feathered, Fishy and Reptilian Friends" due to be published in early 2022. Work has already started on "P.D.: The Life and Times of Philip Dickinson Daffin" a biography of his great grandfather who was a legend in Savannah.

Now living near Ballinspittle in County Cork, Ireland with his wife Ellen, (and four cats, three foxes, two hedgehogs, and hundreds of birds) Cope divides his time between writing, gardening and feeding all and sundry.