The family of Irwin Koplan sadly announces his passing into the arms of his heavenly father on June 14, 2024. He was comforted during his final days on earth by the loving presence of his immediate family and partners, close friends and numerous visitors.
Mr. Koplan was a lifelong resident of North Georgia and Southeastern Tennessee, and was born in Rome, Ga., on May 31, 1937. His father, Leo Koplan, owned a department store in downtown Dalton, and his mother, Minnie Miller Koplan, ran the household and raised three very active boys, one of which was Irwin.
As an observant Orthodox Jew, Irwin was very active in area religious communities, holding membership at the Temple Beth El in Dalton, and the Chabad Jewish Center of Chattanooga, and also attending services at the Mizpah Congregation and participating in many activities of the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga. He was a very pious and holy servant of his Creator.
Irwin grew up in Dalton, attended Baylor High School in Chattanooga, and received a degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech. He also attended Auburn University. Irwin was a loyal fan of both the Baylor and Dalton High School football teams, and attended hundreds of their games, and kept in contact with dozens of his classmates over the decades.
As a teenager, Irwin worked in numerous capacities for his father’s department store, and after college had a brief tenure as a civil engineer, but eventually decided that sales, not engineering, was his forte, so he moved to New York City and excelled in selling the latest technologies in the burgeoning photocopier industry.
While in New York, Irwin met a beautiful New Jersey woman, Joan Berger, eventually moving back to Georgia, marrying her and raising two daughters with her in the Rossville and Ringgold communities. Irwin founded a very successful photocopier sales venture in Chattanooga, Copy Consultants, which he operated for decades, until the big box stores began selling copiers cheaper than he could buy them.
Joan had been involved in the film industry before meeting him, and upon moving to small town Georgia, became interested in law enforcement. She became certified as a police officer and eventually was appointed to serve as the Chief of Police of a small town in rural Georgia and also, at one time, unsuccessfully ran for Sheriff of Catoosa County.
Eventually, Irwin and Joan founded a security and investigations business, licensed in both Georgia and Tennessee, operating out of offices in Dalton, Atlanta, and Ringgold, serving clients in the I-75 corridor between Atlanta and Chattanooga, for nearly four decades. Joan was the chief of the company, and after Irwin sold his copier business, she brought him in as director of sales of her uniformed security guard business. He became licensed by the state as a private investigator and conducted hundreds of complex investigations, and was most proud of his Permanent Judicial Appointment in the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit as a process server, specializing in serving civil papers on hard to locate defendants.
Under Joan’s leadership, and with Irwin’s substantial sales accomplishments, the company, JJK Security and Investigations, Inc. grew in size and reputation, and was eventually chosen by Left Right Productions in New York and the AMC television network to be featured for several years as a national award winning “reality show” called “Small Town Security” until Joan encountered health problems. Both Irwin and Joan were proud members of the Screen Actors Guild.
When Joan passed away in 2016. Irwin assumed leadership of the company, and shortly thereafter discovered that two trusted employees had taken advantage of Joan’s diminished ability to oversee financial operations, resulting in a financial shortfall of a couple of hundred thousands of dollars, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Around this time, he met Cynthia Wolchuk, who he eventually invited into the business as a partner, as well as in his personal life. She had a law degree, an economics degree, and an MBA, so she turned out to be the perfect person to fill Joan’s shoes. She was able to help Irwin recover from the financial loss, and stabilize the company.
After Irwin’s retirement from JJK Security as sales manager and as their chief private investigator, he devoted his attention to developing JJK Process Service, which he operated until a couple of months ago, joining state and national private process service organizations, and professionally, ethically and compassionately serving legal documents for many federal, state, and county agencies as well as 2500 law firms around the country.
Irwin was predeceased by his parents, Leo and Minnie Koplan, and his brother, Stephen Koplan.
He is survived by another brother, Allan Koplan, DDS, his loving daughters, Kara Tsukerman, PhD. and her husband, Ruslan Tsukerman, of the Atlanta area, and Heather Koplan and her son Asher, of Los Angeles. Irwin was so proud of Kara’s earning her PhD recently, and of Heather’s accomplishments in her film and career, following in her mother’s footsteps. Irwin so much wanted to be able to watch Asher carry on his grandpa’s legacy. He was Irwin’s pride and joy since his birth! Irwin just loved receiving video calls from Asher, and treasured the hours he spent reading to Asher when he visited his grandpa in Ringgold.
Memorial services will be held at the gravesite commencing at 10 a.m. on Sunday, with Rabbi Shaul Perlstein of Chabad of Chattanooga officiating at Whitfield Memorial Gardens in Dalton, where his body will be placed to rest next to his dearest wife, since his soul has joined hers and his parents and brother at the right hand of their Creator.
The family requests that instead of floral arrangements, memorial offerings in Irwin’s name be made to Chabad of Chattanooga or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The family wishes to offer sincere thanks for the many friends and fans who have extended their sympathy.