Roll Call Tribute

Melvin Bryce Coddou
October 13, 1947 – August 21, 2021

Melvin Bryce Coddou, 73, passed from this life at his home on Saturday, August 21, 2021.

He was born to Virginia Mae Miller and C.A. “Lex” Coddou on October 13, 1947, in Houston, Texas. He attended West Columbia High School, and graduated from Texas A&M in 1970, with a degree in Range Management. This allowed him to become a range assistant for the U.S. Forest Service in Ennis, Montana, where he lived in the mountains in a one-room cabin and rode horseback each day overseeing the grazing of sheep on the forest. A dream job to him, this began his love affair with the mountains and satisfied his desire to have been born an explorer/mountain man. From there he did a tour of duty in Viet Nam for the U.S. Army.

Upon his return, he met and married Mary Lee Harding, a meeting that began a splendid love story of more than 48 years. His endeavors included owning C & S Fabricating with his good friend, Tommy Slaughter, building two of the family’s houses (one of which was a log cabin built with the help of neighbors in an old-fashioned barn-raising), and having three amazing and beautiful daughters and eventually five granddaughters.

Mel believed in self-sufficiency, tolerated no whining, and believed that love was an action. He was a man who believed in keeping one’s word, minding your own business (unless dispensing advice to daughters) and finishing a job at almost any cost (you CAN reattach a fingertip with superglue although this is not recommended). He seldom allowed fashion sense nor the weather to deter him from his uniform of blue jeans and a long-sleeved Wrangler shirt, and he believed no outfit was complete without a pocketknife.

After having a family, Mel returned to school and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Montana State University, thus beginning an amazing career of special projects, world travels, and frequent relocations with CONOCO.

Family vacations included challenging trips to many different places. He instilled independence in his girls and gifted them with adventures, backbones, and ugly cars; gifts that they discovered gratitude for in later life. He also valued honesty, integrity, and hard work and expected exactly that from those around him as he did from himself.

Mel had an incredibly keen mind. His family and friends often sought his advice due to his wealth of knowledge and the fact that he could do almost anything. He had a witty personality and was always ready with a quick answer. He was a lifelong lover of the poet, Robert Service, and always had a book or two in progress on his desk. He counted himself luckiest to have a good family, few but true friends, and to live at the end of a long road. Mel loved big oak trees, Texas native grasses, and coonhounds.

Although he was surrounded by women in his life, he was never outwitted.

Mel is survived by his beloved wife, Mary; his three daughters, A. Kate Sasser (Dave), of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Ginny Coddou, of Houston, Texas, and Sara Coddou-Tomaselli '04 (Jeff), of Oak Grove, Kentucky; his five granddaughters, Ava Sasser, Olivia Sasser, Mia Sasser, Lexi Tomaselli and Amelia Tomaselli; a brother, Alex Coddou; a special cousin, Cynthia Stewart; and other relatives and friends.

In keeping with Mel’s wishes, there will be no funeral.

Those who knew him are encouraged to celebrate his life in their own way. Going about your business with a little more intention and love to those closest to you would suit him just fine as he believed ‘the greatest thing a man could do for his children was to love their mother’ and that ‘charity begins at home. Mel was a unique and wonderful man who was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.

Donations can be made on Mel’s behalf to Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN).