His colleagues knew him to be a dedicated professor and cigar smoker. A lifelong walker and cigar smoker, he was diagnosed diabetic. A cigar smoker, Coppa regularly disregarded New York State smoking laws. Senator Hodges, a lifelong cigar smoker, died of a heart condition at Goodwood in 1940. A long-time cigar smoker, he died of pneumonia in 1979, aged 77.