‘A big heart’: How Centre County will remember icon Mimi Barash Coppersmith
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- Mimi Barash Coppersmith impacted over 20 Centre County groups through leadership and philanthropy.
- She founded Town&Gown Magazine and co-founded advertising firm The Barash Group.
- She championed social justice and helped expand Penn State and Mount Nittany Health initiatives.
One Centre County commissioner joked she was a founder or contributor of every major charity in Happy Valley. State College’s mayor counted her as a mentor, as did enough residents to “fill a list a mile long.” Even AccuWeather’s founder lauded her as a persuasive fundraiser who always put people first.
Mimi Barash Coppersmith died Sunday at the age of 92, leaving behind a legacy too large to fit in a newspaper. Friends, business owners and local officials painted her as the godmother of Happy Valley, a big-hearted philanthropist with the passion to match her pocketbook.
Even those who don’t recognize her name likely enjoy the fruits of her legacy. She contributed and impacted more than 20 county organizations — such as Mount Nittany Health, Strawberry Fields and the Centre County United Way — while taking on leadership roles, advising officials and working to make Happy Valley a better place. She was Penn State’s first woman chair of the board of trustees, an outspoken champion of social justice and the founder of Town&Gown Magazine.
She was also the co-founder of The Barash Group, an advertising and marketing company that started in 1959 in the family basement.
“She cared about this community and Penn State tremendously,” said State College Borough Manager Tom Fountaine, who added Mimi was among the first to welcome him in 2003. “She had a huge heart, and she worked so closely with all these nonprofit groups and helped them any way she could. It’s hard for me to put into words what she meant to me and this community.”
A celebration of life will be held later this fall, Penn State wrote in a news release outlining her numerous contributions to the university.
‘Passionate and inspiring visionary’
Barash Coppersmith donated millions countywide and remains one of Centre County’s most prolific philanthropists.
The woman whose hearty laugh could fill a room endowed at least four permanent scholarships at Penn State, donated $500,000 to the Palmer Foundation and contributed unknown amounts to nonprofits like the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Centre County Historical Society, Centre Gives, Girl Scouts, Jana Marie Foundation, Youth Service Bureau — and the list goes on for more than a dozen other organizations.
She didn’t just write checks either. She took on numerous leadership roles, such as serving as the former chair of Centre Foundation, former president of Arts Fest, former capital campaign coordinator for Centre LifeLink EMS — and, again, the list goes on.
“I can’t imagine how many people have stories because it seemed like, when you went into the community, she was everywhere,” Mount Nittany Health President and CEO Kathleen Rhine said. “She knew how to bring people together. She was a passionate and inspiring visionary and, when she thought something should be done, she was unrelenting.”
Like Fountaine, Rhine said Barash Coppersmith was one of the first people to greet her when she started the job. Barash Coppersmith helped connect Mount Nittany Health and the Pennsylvania Pink Zone, Rhine said, and the Penn State alum also played a key role in expanding the medical center’s emergency department in 2017.
The longtime philanthropist also donated to Centre Safe, formerly known as the Centre County Women’s Resource Center. But retired executive director Anne Ard said her friend’s value went well beyond her monetary donations.
One of the best lessons Barash Coppersmith imparted to Ard was that, like most things, fundraising is all about people and making connections. During one particular summer fundraiser, Barash Coppersmith recruited Ard and another friend to meet in her conference room — and she proceeded to split up 60 typed letters and scribble handwritten notes herself on 20 of them.
“She never hesitated to ask people she knew to support things that were important to her,” Ard recalled. “She was a force of nature. She knew everybody, and she connected with everybody.”
Joel Myers, founder of AccuWeather, was one of those people. He served together with Barash Coppersmith on the university’s board of trustees, and supported her when she was chair in 1991 and 1992.
Myers said he last spotted Barash Coppersmith a few years ago when the two were attending a charitable event at Discovery Space.
“She was a very good salesperson, but it was always logical and it was always a humane interaction. It wasn’t a hard sell,” Myers remembered. “She’d talk about the benefits to the community and why you’d want to be a part of it. And how could you not want to be part of such a good purpose? You knew she was authentic, and she was supporting these things herself. So it was very hard to turn her down.”
An immeasurable impact on Centre County
The extent of Barash Coppersmith’s impact on Centre County is not fully known, because she never focused on making sure others were aware of her works or donations. She instead centered her efforts on bringing comfort to others.
At Penn State, as a student in the 1950s, that meant a weekly column that didn’t shy away from matters of social justice. That continued to her Town&Gown column, once landing her in “hot water” in the late 1960s when she wrote about the Elks Club refusing to admit Black members.
Those beliefs never left her. More recently, she took on a leadership role in establishing Osaze’s Heart Community Service Scholarship Fund, in remembrance of the State College man who was killed by police in 2019. And she never apologized for celebrating her Jewish heritage or encouraging love and acceptance.
In the final lesson of her 2018 memoir titled “Eat First, Cry Later” — where she shared her battle with breast cancer and death of two husbands — Barash Coppersmith wrote, according to WPSU, “Bring hope and courage to others in these troubled times. That’s why we’re here; that’s all we have, and it is enough.”
And her friends — and Centre County — will miss her for that wisdom.
“She really cared about people; that’s at the heart of who she was,” State College Mayor Ezra Nanes said. “Whether she wanted to help people struggling — or her family or friends or the community — she cared about people on so many different levels, and that created this drive. You see it on all these things she’s a part of.
“She’s an amazing human being, and I can’t believe I won’t see her again. It’s strange to think we have a State College community without Mimi in it. She was such a part of this place, and I’ll definitely miss her.”
In lieu of flowers
In lieu of flowers, one of the daughters of Mimi Barash Coppersmith has asked friends, family and those interested to instead donate to one of the charitable causes closest to her heart — or any charity, really.
“My mom wouldn’t really care one way or another,” Nan Barash said with a laugh, explaining her mother’s desire to better the world around her wasn’t limited to just a few causes.
Still, for those in need of ideas, Nan Barash suggested three places to donate:
- Barash Family Renaissance Scholarship (Penn State)
- College of Communications Barash Scholarship for Study Abroad (Penn State)
- Congregation Brit Shalom
Barash Coppersmith’s synagogue can be donated to online at britshalomstatecollege.org/donations-payments. Penn State did not immediately return a message seeking comment about how to donate directly to its funds, although the university’s give.psu.edu website directs those with questions to email annualgiving@psu.edu.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 8:27 PM.
